Continuum Solid Mechanics at Nano-Scale: How Small Can It Go?

Continuum Solid Mechanics at Nano-Scale: How Small Can It Go?

Nanotechnologies and nanomaterials are arguably the most actively and extensively developing research areas at the beginning of this century. The number of publications in scientific periodicals and conference proceedings, fully or partially devoted to nanotechnologies and nanomaterials, rapidly increases. However, development of nanomechanical models and their application to investigation of mechanical behaviour of nanomaterials in a systematic way is not happening yet. Present studies of the mechanical behaviour of nanoparticles, nanoformations, and nanomaterials are still in their infancy. Only external manifestations of mechanical phenomena are detected, but their mechanisms have not been studied yet.