Stability of Nanoporous Materials

Summary: The stability of nanoporous materials as a result of surface interaction forces has been considered in this paper. We show that cylindrical pores in linear elastic materials will collapse if α  =  γ / μ A  > 2. As one would expect physically, smaller cavities tend to be more unstable for the same surface energy and material properties as a result of the high internal Laplace pressure. Extensions to account for large deformation and strain‐hardening effects and for viscoelastic materials are discussed.Normalized potential energy versus cavity stretch for the well‐known Neo–Hookean material model. The equilibrium solution shifts to the left as the parameter α increases, implying a greater cavity shrinkage.