Nonlinear Vibrations of Carbon Nanotubes with Thermal-Electro-Mechanical Coupling

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have wide-ranging applications due to their excellent mechanical and electrical properties. However, there is little research on the nonlinear mechanical properties of thermal-electro-mechanical coupling. In this paper, we study the nonlinear vibrations of CNTs by a thermal-electro-mechanical coupling beam theory. The Galerkin method is used to discretize the partial differential equation and obtain two nonlinear ordinary differential equations that describe the first- and second-order mode vibrations. Then, we obtain the approximate analytical solutions of the two equations for the primary resonance and the subharmonic resonance using the multi-scale method. The results indicate the following three points. Firstly, the temperature and electric fields have a significant influence on the first-mode vibration, while they have little influence on the second-mode vibration. Under the primary resonance, when the load amplitude of the second mode is 20 times that of the first mode, the maximal vibrational amplitude of the second is only one-fifth of the first. Under the subharmonic resonance, it is more difficult to excite the subharmonic vibration at the second-order mode than that of the first mode for the same parameters. Secondly, because the coefficient of electrical expansion (CEE) is much bigger than the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), CNTs are more sensitive to changes in the electric field than the temperature field. Finally, under the primary resonance, there are two bifurcation points in the frequency response curves and the load-amplitude curves. As a result, they will induce the jump phenomenon of vibrational amplitude. When the subharmonic vibration is excited, the free vibration term does not disappear, and the steady-state vibration includes two compositions.