Local elastic properties of carbon nanotubes in the presence of Stone-Wales defects

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are being contemplated as reinforcements for the next generation of composite materials. Stress and strain measures at an atomic scale are required to study the effect of inhomogeneities in nanotube based structures. In this work, we have adapted three different stress measures at atomic scales and introduced strain measures as energetically conjugate quantities. These measures are validated for defect free nanotubes and are then used to study the mechanics of 5-7-7-5 topological defects in various single wall nanotubes. It is observed that there is a decrease in the load carrying capacity in the defected region, and this decrease can be attributed to the changes in the kinetics and kinematics in the vicinity of the defects.