A Theoretical Investigation on Chirality Dependence of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Thermal Conductivity

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are widely investigated for their potential applications in micro- and nanoelectro mechanical devices and structural materials in recent decade. In such applications, the use of materials with high thermo- and electro-mechanical performance are of great needs. Owing to their high thermal conductivity, CNTs are among the best candidates for the use in thermal managements of MEMS and NEMS devices. The potential use of individual CNTs as key components warrants detailed investigation of their thermo-mechanical behavior based on their various structural and geometrical configurations. The objective of this paper is to investigate the structural and chirality dependence of the thermal conductivity of a single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) employing analytical and numerical approaches. In this work, a homogenization composite shell model is developed based on the asymptotic homogenization technique for analytical modeling of SWCNTs. The working formulae are derived for the effective thermal conductivity of SWCNTs with different chiralities and then chiral dependence of the effective thermal conductivity is investigated. To further study the chirality effects on thermal conductivity of CNTs, finite element analysis as an alternative technique is also performed. Finally, the results obtained from both finite element and asymptotic homogenization techniques are compared and discussed. The outcomes of our analyses are compared with available experimental and simulation results.