#### Vol. 13, No. 3, 2018

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Elastic moduli of boron nitride nanotubes based on finite element method

### Hossein Hemmatian, Mohammad Reza Zamani and Jafar Eskandari Jam

Vol. 13 (2018), No. 3, 351–363
##### Abstract

Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) possess superior thermal conductivity and mechanical/electrical properties, and are a suitable and favourable reinforcement for binanocomposites. Experimental studies on nanoscale materials are time-consuming, costly, and require accurate implementation. Therefore, a three-dimensional finite element (FE) model of a space-frame structure is proposed for BNNTs, which is based on molecular structural mechanics. The effects of length, chirality, diameter, and defect on the elastic moduli of BNNTs are investigated. The results show that defects in the nanotubes decrease the mechanical properties. The values of the Young’s modulus and shear modulus of BNNTs without defects change from $1.022\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}TPa$ to $1.042\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}TPa$ and from $0.33\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}TPa$ to $0.536\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}TPa$, respectively. It is found that, with increasing chirality and radius of BNNTs, the Young’s modulus and shear modulus increase. As the length of zigzag and armchair BNNTs increases, the Young’s modulus increases and the shear modulus decreases. Also, it was observed that by using the finite element method (FEM) based on molecular dynamics, one can accurately determine the mechanical properties of BNNTs. The results demonstrate that the proposed FE model is a valuable tool for studying the mechanical behaviour of BNNTs.

##### Keywords
elastic moduli, boron nitride nanotube, chirality, length, finite element method