Design of aligned carbon nanotubes structures using structural mechanics modeling Part 1: Theory and individual carbon nanotube modeling

Aligned carbon nanotubes structures are emerging new materials that have demonstrated superior mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties and have the huge potential for a wide range of applications. In contrast with traditional materials whose microstructures are relatively "fixed", the aligned carbon nanotube materials have highly "tunable" structures. Therefore, it is crucial to have a rational strategy to design and evaluate the architectures and geometric factors to help process the optimal nanotube materials. Astructural mechanics based computational modeling is used for designing the aligned carbon nanotubes structures. Part 1 of the papers presents the theory of the computational method as well as the design and modeling of individual nanotube. As the fundamental building block of the aligned nanotube structures, the variations of geometric parameters of the individual nanotube on its mechanical properties are thoroughly examined.