: Carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets are two new types of carbon nanostructures which have attracted the attention of research community in the recent years. A great deal of research has been conducted to explore the properties and behavior of these structures. The modeling for the nanostructures is justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" In this thesis the buckling and free vibration of single and multi-layered graphene sheets are studied. The sheet, depending on its thickness to width ratio, is modeled as a thin or thick nanoplate and the governing equations are obtained based on the Eringen's nonlocal theory. The van der Waals interatomic forces between the layers of multi-layered graphene sheets are considered in the formulation. The finite strip method is employed to solve the governing equations of the system. This method is widely used in the analysis of rectangular plates, but its direct application to the analysis of nanostructures has not been investigated. This study, for the first time, presents new versions of ordinary and complex finite strip method based on Eringen's nonlocal theory to study the buckling and free vibration of nanoplates and graphene sheets. The method provides an efficient formulation for investigation of nanoplate behavior under different uniaxial, biaxial and shear loadings. Contrary to the majority of the studies, different boundary conditions could be considered. Moreover, to achieve the faster convergency of the method, the bubble shape functions are introduced and employed in the formulation. Developed finite strip methods are based on two different plate theories. ltr"
