Study of torsional strain effect on dynamic behavior of carbon nanotube thermal actuator

In this paper, a regulation method through torsional strain effect is proposed for carbon nanotube linear thermal actuators. The effects of torsional strain effect on the linear driven performance of linear actuators are systematically studied by molecular dynamics method, and the effect mechanism is revealed as well. It was found that the torsional strain affects the thermal driving force and the friction effect by changing the spacing between the carbon tubes and lattice vibration modes, then further affects the linear driving characteristics. The influence mechanism of torsional strain on the driving characteristics is analyzed and the valuable conclusions for nanoscale strain engineering application are obtained. The work of this paper provides a new idea for performance regulation for nano-driving by using strain effect, and has important guiding significance for nanoscale strain engineering.