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

Abstract EN

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.