Free flight of an oscillated string pendulum as a tool for the mechanical characterization of an individual polymer nanofiber
Abstract
The physical principles of a method for the mechanical testing of individual nanofibers are presented. A fiber with an attached mass undergoing a test is considered as a string pendulum. In addition to regular oscillations under the elastic force, the suspended bob performs free flight only under gravity which can be easily tracked. Based on a model developed to analyze the resonant frequency dependence of these flights, the Young’s modulus of the nanofiber was determined. The proposed method was verified with testing of individual nanofibers of nylon-66, which demonstrated the increase in the Young’s modulus for fiber diameters below 500nm.