Nanomechanics of nonideal single- and double-walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The buckling characteristics of nonideal single- and double-walled carbon nanotubes were studied in this work via molecular dynamics simulation method. An imperfectly straight nonideal single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) with a bent along the tube axis was used to form an array which is subjected to compression. The change in orientation of bends will result in a variation of nonbonded interactions in an SWCNT array system. We find that these variations in the nonbonded interactions strongly affect the buckling resistance of the SWCNT array. Similarly, a nonideal double-walled carbon nanotube (DWCNT) is constructed by varying the interlayer distance by introducing a center offset on the inner core SWCNT. The inclusion of offset along the tube axis in such nonideal DWCNT can enhance or deteriorate the mechanical qualities of the DWCNT under compression. Our numerical studies on nonideal CNT systems suggest a possibility of designing high-performing CNTs for applications involving fiber reinforcements. Copyright © 2012 C. H. Wong and V. Vijayaraghavan.