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Nano-structured materials (e.g. nanocomposites, nanoporous materials, nanocrystalline materials, etc.) and nano-scale structural elements (e.g. nanotubes, nanofilms, nanobeams, etc.) have unique mechanical and physical properties. For nano-structured materials containing inhomogeneities (e.g. voids and particles) in the nanoscale dimensions such as nanoporous materials and nanocomposites, the size effect due to surface energy due to nanoscale inhomogeneities can play an important role on their mechanical properties and responses. In this paper, the finite element based micromechanical model for analysis of materials containing nanoscale inhomogeneities incorporating Gurtin-Murdoch surface theory is presented. The proposed micromechanical model is applied to examine the responses and properties of nano-structured materials, i.e., nanoporous and nanocomposite materials. Selected numerical results are presented to portray the features of the elastic field responses and properties of elastic materials with nanoscale inhomogeneities. The finite element-based micromechanical model presented in this paper is an efficient tool to analyze the response and predict the mechanical properties of nano-structured materials.

Nanotechnology, micromechanics theory, inhomogeneity, nanocomposites, nanoporous materials