Shock loading of carbon nanotube bundle

A single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) bundle under shock loading in lateral direction is studied by means of the chain model with reduced number of degrees of freedom. One or two compressive shock waves are initiated by a piston moving at a constant speed V0. At lower piston speeds, only the faster wave front resulting in an elliptization of CNTs propagates, while at higher speeds this is followed by the slower wave front resulting in CNT collapse. Time evolution of the CNT bundle structure during compression is investigated in detail. Energy absorption rate W as a function of the piston speed V0 is evaluated for bundles having CNTs of different diameter D. Bundles with smaller CNT diameter demonstrate a higher energy absorption rate scaling as W∼D−3. The rate of energy absorption increases bilinearly with V0, and in the regime of CNT collapse the slope of the line is twice as high as in the case when only elliptization takes place. The obtained results can be useful for the development of new types of elastic dampers. •A CNT bundle under shock loading in lateral direction is studied using MD method.•One or two compressive waves are initiated by a piston moving at a constant speed.•At lower piston speeds, only the faster wave front of CNT elliptization propagates.•At higher speeds this is followed by the slower wave front resulting in CNT collapse.•Energy absorption rate as a function of the piston speed and CNT radius is evaluated.