Date of Award
2021
Document Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MS)
Administrative Home Department
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Advisor 1
Susanta Ghosh
Committee Member 1
Gregory M. Odegard
Committee Member 2
Yoke Khin Yap
Abstract
Graphene has attracted a great share of research interest due to its extraordinary electrical, thermal, mechanical, and physical properties. Such spectacular properties of graphene open a wide range potential of applications in electronics, energy storage, composites, and biomedical fields. The mechanical properties of graphene can have a huge impact on its performance in graphene-based devices and thus it is important to study them. But the difficulties in experimental characterization and computational limitations to simulate large graphene sample consisting of billions of atoms makes it a challenging task. Thus, accurate and efficient simulation tools to predict the complex deformation of large graphene samples are needed but are still elusive.
The objective of this thesis is to utilize the atomistic-continuum foliation (AC) model developed by Ghosh and Arroyo (2013) and modified by Upendra Yadav, to reproduce the Nano-indentation experiments accurately. This atomistic - continuum foliation (AC) model enables one to directly reproduce the experimental results, something that was not possible before. Using this model we can study the effects of different variables like adhesion, frictional force, indenter radius and stress concentration which is not possible to obtain from the experiments.
This thesis also includes the simulation results for different surface morphology like wrinkles and ripples generated on the multi-layer graphene samples under uniaxial and biaxial compression for different van der Waals potential, which paves a way to study the multifunctionality and control of crumpling and unfolding of graphene to enhance its performance in graphene-based devices.
Recommended Citation
Nikumbh, Ashwini, "Atomistic continuum simulations for nano-indentation and compression of multi-layer graphene", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2021.