The effect of nanotube radius on the constitutive model for carbon nanotubes

We investigate the effect of nanotube radius on the constitutive model of single wall carbon nanotubes. We adopt a modified Cauchy-Born rule to incorporate the interatomic potential into the continuum analysis, and such an approach ensures the equilibrium of atoms. It is shown that the nanotube radius has little effect on the mechanical behavior of single wall carbon nanotubes subject to simple tension or pure torsion, while the nanotube orientation has somewhat larger influences. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.