An atomistic-continuum inhomogeneous material model for the elastic bending of metal nanocantilevers

The equivalent elastic modulus of nanocantilever can be obtained using atomistic simulation. However, the use of this modulus to predict the bending of nanocantilever results in significant error compared with direct atomistic simulation. The error originates from the surface effect. In our current work, the nanocantilever is considered as an inhomogeneous continuum material. The distributions of materials parameters at the cross-section, such as atomistic elastic constants, are calculated from atomistic simulations. These atomistic-information-based materials parameters are used as inputs to continuum model. A numerical example case validates the presented model and methodology. To correctly predict the structure-property relations of elemental nano-structures are very important for the design of nano-devices. Our continuum model includes nano-effects and provides another way to study nanomechanics. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.