Modeling of strains and stresses of material nanostructures

Stress and deformation analysis of materials and devices at the nanoscale level are topics of intense research in materials science and mechanics. In these investigations two approaches are observed. First, natural for the atomistic scale description is based on quantum and molecular mechanics. Second, characteristic for the macroscale continuum model description, is modified by constitutive laws taking atomic interactions into account. In the present paper both approaches are presented. For a discrete system of material points (atoms, molecules, clusters), measures of strain and stress, important from the mechanical viewpoint, are given. Numerical examples of crack propagation and deformation of graphite sheets (graphens) illustrate the behavior of the discrete systems.