Nano-mechanical response of carbon nanotubes – a mechanics based approach incorporating atomistic information

Abstract

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are being widely used in composites to improve their mechanical properties and to further impart smart properties. In order to use CNTs effectively and efficiently in a composite, it is important to understand its behaviour under different loading conditions. The behaviour of CNT is primarily being investigated using molecular level analytical techniques since the experimental techniques are very limited, too expensive and time consuming. Though it is very important to determine the behaviour of CNT before using it in engineering- or building- materials, it is extremely difficult for the engineers to be involved in such molecular level mechanics, whereas usage of conventional structural mechanics approach to understand the behaviour of CNT might be a crude approximation. In order to bridge this gap, structural mechanics approach by incorporating molecular level information has been employed in the present study to evaluate the static (axial and bending behaviour, linear and nonlinear buckling) and dynamic response of CNT. The influence of various geometric parameters like diameter, chirality and aspect ratio on the static and dynamic responses has been studied. The findings will help for easy computational studies on CNT incorporated composites.