Tensile and compressive properties of carbon nanotube bundles

Molecular dynamics (MID) simulations were used to calculate the tensile and compressive properties of carbon nanotube (CNT) bundles, with the atomic interactions modeled by the short-range Brenner potential coupled with the long-range van der Waals potential. The dependence of the tensile and compressive properties of various configurations of CNT bundles was investigated. The critical strains, failure and buckling loads were determined and presented for the different configurations of CNT bundles. The average failure load of each single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) in a CNT bundle can be used to determine the failure load of the entire CNT bundle of any sizes. The MD simulations also reveal that CNT bundles comprising bigger SWCNTs will exhibit higher strength. The average buckling load of each SWCNT was computed and compared with earlier reported buckling loads for individual SWCNTs and it was found that the presence of intratube van der Waals interactions tend to weaken the CNT bundles. (c) 2005 Acta Materialia, Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.