Surface and Interface Effects on Torsion of Eccentrically Two-Phase fcc Circular Nanorods: Determination of the Surface/Interface Elastic Properties via an Atomistic Approach

The effect of surface and interface elasticity in the analysis of the Saint–Venant torsion problem of an eccentrically two-phase fcc circular nanorod is considered; description of the behavior of such a small structure via usual classical theories cease to hold. In this work, the problem is formulated in the context of the surface/interface elasticity. For a rigorous solution of the proposed problem, conformal mapping with a Laurent series expansion are employed together. The numerical results well illustrate that the torsional rigidity and stress distribution corresponding to such nanosized structural elements are significantly affected by the size. In order to employ surface and interface elasticity, several key properties such as surface energy, surface stresses, and surface elastic constants of several fcc materials as well as interface properties of the noncoherent fcc bicrystals are derived in terms of Rafii-Tabar and Sutton interatomic potential function. For determination of the surface/interface parameters a molecular dynamics program, which uses the above-mentioned potential function, is developed. The calculated surface and interface properties are in reasonable agreement with the corresponding results in literature. Some applications of the given results can be contemplated in the design of micro-/nano-electromechanical systems.