Axial Buckling Behavior of Double-Wall Carbon Nanotubes by Finite Element Simulation

Abstract

With finite element (FE) simulation, we study the buckling behavior of double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) under axial compression. In the FE models, linear beam elements and nonlinear spring elements are used to simulate the complex structures and the Van der Waals' force between non-bond atoms from different layers is considered by the Lennard-Jones potential function. The effect of aspect ratio of DWCNTs and double-atoms vacancy on the buckling modes and the critical buckling strains are investigated. The computational results indicate that with the increase of aspect ratio, the critical buckling strains will decrease. For both armchair and zigzag DWCNTs, the critical buckling strains are generally larger than those of the single-wall carbon nanotubes with the same chirality as the external layers and those of the same structures without Van der Waals' force. For defective DWCNTs, the buckling strains of each order decrease by a maximum amplitude of 32.3%.