A novel nonlinear constitutive relation for graphene and its consequence for developing closed-form expressions for Young's modulus and critical buckling strain of single-walled carbon nanotubes (Q645333)

The paper provides an accurate continuum-mechanics approach for the description of the behavior of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). A new constitutive relation which in addition to the usual linear terms contains a nonlinear term is proposed for graphene. Based on this relation, the authors derive expressions for the Young modulus and the critical buckling strain of SWCNTs. These expressions are obtained in terms of linear elastic constants of graphene, the coefficient of the additional nonlinear term \(\mathfrak n\), and geometrical parameters of the nanotube. Notice that the initial strains in SWCNT is a distinctive feature of the present approach. The concept presented in the paper is based on a nonlinear continuum model allowing one to describe the large deformations of graphene with a high precision. The authors' approach departs from previous contributions and neither employs molecular methods nor utilizes the Cauchy-Born rule. It is shown that the expressions for the Young modulus and the critical buckling strain of SWCNTs depend on the history of the graphene deformation (initial strain field), on the Lamé constants and on the thickness and radius of the nanotube. The additional material parameter is a function of chilarity of CNT. The critical stress pertinent to the beam-like behavior of a SWCNT with clamped ends is determined from the well-known Euler theory. Due to the Young modulus of the graphene, the critical buckling strain for the Euler beam can be recovered as the limiting case of the presented theory for SWCNTs with nanotube radius tending to infinity. The nonlinear parameter \(\mathfrak n\) is obtained for two cases of armchair and zigzag SWCNTs, and the corresponding critical buckling strain is computed in terms of length-to-radius ratio.