In this paper, the axial buckling of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) is investigated by considering the effects of surface and electric field. To achieve this purpose, the surface elasticity theory is exploited and the results are compared with the molecular dynamic simulation in order to validate the accuracy of the applied theory. In the molecular dynamics simulation, the potential between boron and nitride atoms is considered as Tersoff type. The Timoshenko beam theory is adopted to model BNNT. Moreover, two types of zigzag and armchair BNNTs are considered. In this study, the effects of surface, electric field, length, and thickness of BNNT on the critical buckling load are investigated. According to the results, the critical load of zigzag BNNT depends on the electric field. However, the electric field would not affect the critical load of the armchair BNNT. It should be noted that the surface residual tension and surface Lamé’s constants of BNNT have considerable impact on the critical load of BNNT. For lower values of electric field and smaller dimensions of BNNT, the critical load would be more dependent on the surface effect regarding the results. Furthermore, as an efficient non-classical continuum mechanic approach, the surface elasticity theory can fill the potential gap between the classical continuum mechanic and molecular dynamics simulation.
