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M. Schwarzbart, A. Steindl, H. Troger:
"Buckling of Carbon Nanotubes: a Molecular Static Approach";
Talk: GAMM 2010 - 81st Annual Meeting of the International Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Karlsruhe; 2010-03-22 - 2010-03-26; in: "GAMM Annual Meeting - Karlsruhe 2010", C. Wieners (ed.); PAMM, 10/1 (2010), 4 pages.

Axially loaded cylindrical continuous shells collapse either globally like a rod (Euler buckling), or locally (local shell wall
buckling), depending on the ratio of the length of the shell over the diameter [1]. There are many published investigations,
which show that this behaviour is also true for Carbon Nanotubes CNTs [2]. In this work a systematic analysis of the problem
is given in the framework of molecular statics. This approach has the advantage of taking care of the discrete structure of
CNTs. The covalent bonds of the hexagonal carbon network are modelled as nonlinear springs, and the compressive load is
applied quasistatically, excluding follower forces. The software package LAMMPS [3] offers the AIREBO potential [4] and
is suitable for describing CNTs. To identify the stability boundary in the parameter plane, LAMMPS is extended to compute
the definiteness of the Hessian.

Bifurcation; Carbon Nanotubes; Euler buckling; Local shell wall buckling; molecular statics

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pamm.201010008