ABSTRACT
The interest manifested, in recent decades, in green composites, is explained by the wide range of their potential applications in many fields. Special attention has been paid to carbon nanotubes, which exhibit superior electrical and mechanical properties that can improve the properties of green polymer composites. The current review focuses on the progress made in carbon nanotube/green polymer composites. In this chapter, the modeling
of mechanical properties of CNT/polymer nano-composites is reviewed. The chapter starts with the structural and intrinsic mechanical properties of CNTs. Then we introduce some computational methods that have been applied to polymer nano-composites, covering from molecular scale (e.g., molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo), microscale (e.g., Brownian dynamics, dissipative particle dynamics, lattice Boltzmann, time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau method, dynamic density functional theory method) to mesoscale and macroscale (e.g., micromechanics, equivalent-continuum and self-similar approaches, finite element method). Hence, the knowledge and understanding of the nature and mechanics of length and orientation of nano-tube and load transfer between nano-tube and polymer is critical for manufacturing of enhanced carbon nano-tube-polymer composites and will enable in tailoring of the interface for specific applications or superior mechanical properties. So, in this review a state of these parameters in mechanics of carbon nano-tube polymer composites will be discussed along with some directions for future research in this field.
