Buckling Analysis of Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) using Finite Element Method

A finite element simulation technique is proposed and developed to investigate the buckling behavior of SWCNTs. SWCNTs are particularly complicated for any mechanical test due to its miniature molecular dimensions. Due to the difficulties of experiments at the nanoscale level, numerical works are conducted to determine the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes. Numerical works can be divided into two types which are continuum mechanics and molecular dynamics. CNTs are not nearly as strong under compression because of their hollow structures and high aspect ratio. Hence, it is important to find and investigate the buckling behavior of the carbon nanotubes. The simulation is defined based on the concept of equivalence of molecular dynamics and continuum mechanics approach. The buckling behavior of SWCNTs is predicted based on certain application of load consists of the axial loading. A set consisting of four (4) different lengths of armchair SWCNTs is investigated to observe the variation in the buckling behavior. The carbon nanotubes are simulated as a frame-like structure and the model are built using the finite element commercial code ANSYS. The type of element used is non-linear 188 beam element. The result shows various significant variations in buckling behavior for every tube lengths.