Instability analysis of viscoelastic CNTs surrounded by a thermo-elastic foundation

Static and dynamic instability of a viscoelastic carbon nanotube (CNT) embedded on a thermo-elastic foundation are investigated, in this research. The CNT is modeled based on Euler-Bernoulli beam (EBB) and nonlocal small scale elasticity theory is utilized to analyze the structure. Governing equations of the system are derived using Hamilton‟s principle and differential quadrature (DQ) method is applied to solve the partial differential equations. The effects of variable axial load and diverse boundary conditions on static/vibration instability are studied. To verify the result of the DQ method, the Galerkin weighted residual approach is used for the instability analysis. It is observed appropriate agreement for results of two different solution methods and satisfactory accuracy with those obtained in prior studies. The results of this work could be useful for engineers and designers in order to produce and design nano/micro structures in thermo-elastic medium.