Stability analysis of carbon nanotubes with continuum mechanics

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Since 1990s, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), about a hundred times stronger than steel at 1/6th the weight, have been discovered to hold great potential for countless technology innovations and applications, such as extremely lightweight and strong fabrics, chemical sensors, electrical sensors, fuel cells, and drug delivery. Business Communication Company estimates that global sales of CNTs will reach US$231.5 million in 2006. Unfortunately, CNTs' prompt and wide applications are hindered by insufficient understanding of their mechanical behaviour. Among many challenges, CNTs' stability analysis such as kink instability (abrupt changes of curvature due to compression) and post-buckling (large deformation due to compression) calls for a breakthrough. For example, inadequate understanding of CNTs' kink instability has been a major setback to the design of CNT based Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Classic molecular dynamics is only applicable to stability analysis of systems with a small number of molecules and atoms.