Transitional Failure of Carbon Nanotube Systems under a Combination of Tension and Torsion

Abstract

Transitional failure envelopes of single‐ and double‐walled carbon nanotubes under combined tension‐torsion are predicted using classical molecular dynamics simulations. The observations reveal that while the tensile failure load decreases with combined torsion, the torsional buckling moment increases with combined tension. As a result, the failure envelopes under combined tension‐torsion are definitely different from those under pure tension or torsion. In such combined loading, there is a multitude of failure modes (tensile failure and torsional buckling), and the failure consequently exhibits the feature of transitional failure envelopes. In addition, the safe region of double‐walled carbon nanotubes is significantly larger than that of single‐walled carbon nanotubes due to the differences in the onset of torsional buckling.