Fatigue characteristics of carbon nanotube blocks under compression

  • J. Suhr
  • , L. Ci
  • , P. Victor
  • , P. M. Ajayan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the mechanical response from repeated high compressive strains on freestanding, long, vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube membranes and show that the arrays of nanotubes under compression behave very similar to soft tissue and exhibit viscoelastic behavior. Under compressive cyclic loading, the mechanical response of nanotube blocks shows initial preconditioning and hysteresis characteristic of viscoeleastic materials. Furthermore, no fatigue failure is observed even at high strain amplitudes up to half million cycles. The outstanding fatigue life and extraordinary soft tissue-like mechanical behavior suggest that properly engineered carbon nanotube structures could mimic artificial muscles.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBehavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional and Composite Materials 2008
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008
Externally publishedYes
EventBehavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional and Composite Materials 2008 - San Diego, CA, United States
Duration: 10 Mar 200813 Mar 2008

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume6929
ISSN (Print)0277-786X

Conference

ConferenceBehavior and Mechanics of Multifunctional and Composite Materials 2008
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego, CA
Period10/03/0813/03/08

Keywords

  • Carbon nanotubes
  • Fatigue life
  • Hysteresis
  • Viscoelasticity

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Fatigue characteristics of carbon nanotube blocks under compression'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this