Multiscale modeling of the mechanical properties of carbon nanotube artificial muscles

• Grant number: 16/00497-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2016
• End date: April 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre Fontes da Fonseca
• Grantee: Tainá de Souza Coimbra
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin (IFGW). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project consists of the study of structural and mechanical properties of a prototype of an artificial muscle made of carbon nanotubes [Science 323, 1575 (2009)]. In order to do so, two levels of modeling will be employed: one we called structural, and one atomistic. Different structural models will be devised from carbon nanotube unit cells defined to represent parts of a real carbon nanotube sheet. Using methods of classical molecular dynamics, the elastic properties of such unit cells will be obtained and further used to compose and describe the elastic properties of a structural model of the carbon nanotube sheets.