Design and modeling of nonlinear cantilevered carbon nanotubes electrostatically actuated for mass sensing applications

International audienceA computational model of an electrostatically actuated cantilevered carbon nanotube (CNT) under primary resonance is developed while considering geometric and electrostatic nonlinearities. Based on the Galerkin discretization, the harmonic balance and the asymptotic numerical methods (HBM and ANM), numerical simulations are performed in order to investigate the influence of higher modes on the dynamics of the CNT. For a particular nonlinear CNT design, several frequency shifts are derived for different added masses at various positions at the resonator. It is demonstrated that a particle can be identified by the numerical simulation of the first mode coupled with the analytical formulas of the linear frequency shifts corresponding to the second and third modes