This is an abstract for a presentation given at the Eighth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology . There will be a link from here to the full article when it is available on the web.
Tubes are one class of proto-typical nanoscale components required in nanodevices and nanomachines.
Tubes can be used as bearings, struts or pipes and each of these applications places different requirements on the stiffness and positional uncertainty of the tubes. Hence it is important to be able to estimate these properties for tubes of varying geometry and design. Amongst other results, it is found that the stiffness and positional uncertainty of hollow diamondoid tubular structures is, to first order, determined by the wall thickness, as predicted by classical continuum mechanics scaling laws. All rights reserved. Last updated 23June2000.