Buckling of Carbon Nanotube/polymer Composites by MD and FEM Methods

The advancement of science and technology has developed into the age of nanotechnology. Various applications of nanomaterials have been proposed based on their unique geometrical (small diameter and high aspect ratio) and mechanical properties (high stiffness, high strength and flexibility)[1]. One of the characteristics of nanotubes is their high elastic buckling force. These properties suggest that carbon nanotubes may use as the reinforcement for nanocomposites. The improvement of stiffness and strength due to the addition of carbon nanotubes in polymeric matrix materials has been proved[2]. Among the available literature, Lordi and Yao used force-field-based molecular mechanics to model the interactions between nanotubes and several different kind of polymers. More recently, Li and Chou examine the compressive behavior of carbon nanotube/polymer composites using a multi-scale modeling approach. The nanotube is modeled at the atomistic scale by the molecular structural mechanics method, and the matrix deformation is analyzed at the macroscopic scale by the continuum finite element method. In this paper,following the same technique buckling behavior of nanotube/polymer composites at different volume fractions of are investigated and the van der waals interaction modeled by means of nonlinear spring element at finite element method