Equivalent-Continuum Modeling With Application to Carbon Nanotubes

A method has been proposed for developing structure-property relationships of nano-structured materials. This method serves as a link between computational chemistry and solid mechanics by substituting discrete molecular structures with equivalent-continuum models. It has been shown that this substitution may be accomplished by equating the molecular potential energy of a nano-structured material with the strain energy of representative truss and continuum models. As important examples with direct application to the development and characterization of singlewalled carbon nanotubes and the design of nanotube-based structural devices, the modeling technique has been applied to two independent examples: the determination of the effectivecontinuum geometry and bending rigidity of a graphene sheet. A representative volume element of the chemical structure of graphene has been substituted with equivalent-truss and equivalentcontinuum models. As a result, an effective thickness of the continuum model has been determined. The determined effective thickness is significantly larger than the inter-planar spacing of graphite. The effective bending rigidity of the equivalent-continuum model of a graphene sheet was determined by equating the molecular potential energy of the molecular model of a graphene sheet subjected to cylindrical bending (to form a nanotube) with the strain energy of an equivalent-continuum plate subjected to cylindrical bending.