Surface effects on large deflection of nanowires

Surface effects play an important role in the mechanical behavior of nanosized structural elements owing to the increased ratio of surface area to volume. The surface effects on the large deflection of nanowires were considered. Both geometric nonlinearity in finite deformation and surface effects at nanoscale were taken into account to analyze the bending of nanowires subjected to a concentrated force. For simply supported beams and clamped-clamped beams, the influence of surface effects and geometric nonlinearity were discussed in detail. It is found that both surface effects and geometric nonlinearity tend to decrease the deflection of bending nanowires and thus increase the effective elastic modulus of nanowires. Surface effects yield the size dependent behavior of nanowires.