Special Issue on Advanced Mechanical Modeling of Nanomaterials and Nanostructures

The increased requirements in design and manufacturing nanotechnology have favored the development of enhanced composite materials with tailored properties, such as functionally graded (FG) and carbon-based materials, primarily carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and graphene sheets or nanoplatelets, because of their remarkable mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, and high permeability. In such a context, nanoscaled structural elements such as nanobeams and nanoplates are being widely adopted as key components in different modern engineering devices, including sensors, actuators, nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), transistors, probes, among others. The complicated nature of similar structural systems requires a proper investigation of their fundamental properties, from an experimental, theoretical, and computational perspective. In line with the experimental findings, classical continuum theories are unable to interpret realistically the physical and mechanical properties of nanomaterials and nanostructures, whereas nonlocal formulations are more prone to explore their possible size-dependence in most static, dynamic, fracture mechanics problems.