Structural Modelling of Hexagonal Grids Applied to Carbon Nanotubes

This paper presents a structural model for hexagonal grids and its application to the mechanical behaviour of carbon nanotubes. The model reproduces the axial stiffness between nodes and the distortional stiffness among concurrent pairs of nodes, but no flexural stiffness of the links. Results from linear and non-linear formulations will be presented and compared with the available literature, and the predicted behaviour of this kind of structure will be discussed.