Theoretical Studies on the Multi-walled Carbon Nanotubes, Multi-layered Graphene Sheets and Carbon Nanotube-based Nanocomposites

Description

Nanotechnology is an emerging interdisciplinary area of science that focuses on the study of structures of nanoscopic dimensions. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have broad prospects as components in nanomechanical devices due to many exceptional mechanical properties such as high elastic modulus, large elastic strain and strong breaking strain sustaining capability. This project aims to develop a continuum mechanics model for investigating the nonlinear vibration and the postbuckling of MWCNTs and multi-layered grapheme sheets (MLGSs). Based on the developed continuum model for the postbuckling of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), an elastic constitutive model will be developed for the study of CNT-based composites. The proposed project, once developed and verified, will be able to treat a large scale computation of CNTs and MLGSs and, thus, provide a comprehensive understanding of CNTs and MLGSs as well as CNT-based composites. This is the key towards achieving practical application of this new class of materials.