Nanotubes form clusters and are found in curved bundles in nanotube films and nanocomposites. Separation phenomenon is suspected to occur in these curved bundles. In this study, the deformation of a single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) interacting with curved bundle nanotubes is analyzed. It is assumed that the bundle is rigid and only van der Waals force acts between the nanotube and the bundle of nanotubes. A new method of modeling geometric nonlinear behavior of the nanotube due to finite rotation and the corresponding van der Waals force is developed using co-rotational finite element method (CFEM) formulation, combined with small deformation beam theory, with the inclusion of axial force. Current developed CFEM method overcomes the limitation of linear Finite Element Method (FEM) formulation regarding large rotations and deformations of carbon nanotubes. This study provides a numerical tool to identify the critical curvature influence on the interaction of carbon nanotubes due to van der Waals forces and can provide more insight into studying irregularities in the electronic transport properties of adsorbed nanotubes in nanocomposites.
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