Postbuckling Equilibrium Path of a Long Thin-Walled Cylindrical Shell (Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube) under Axial Compression Using Energy Method

In this paper, an elastic shell model is presented for postbuckling prediction of a long thinwalledcylindrical shell under axial compression. The Ritz method is applied to solve the governingequilibrium equation of a cylindrical shell model based on the von-Karman type nonlinear differentialequations. The postbuckling equilibrium path is obtained using the energy method for a long thin-walledcylindrical shell. Furthermore, the postbuckling relationship between the axial stress and end-shorteningis investigated with different geometric parameters. Also, this theory is used for postbuckling analysis ofa single-walled carbon nanotube without considering the small scale effects. Numerical results revealthat the single-walled carbon nanotube under axial compression has an unstable postbuckling behavior.