Reliability analysis of carbon nanotubes using molecular dynamics with the aid of grid computing

The first molecular dynamics simulation-based reliability analysis of carbon nanotubes is conducted in this paper. Instead of uncertainties of loads, we consider uncertainties of defects, especially vacancies, at the nanoscale in our modeling and simulation. A spatial Poisson point process is employed to assist randomly locating vacancies on the surface of nanotubes. With the aid of Grid computing technologies, a large number of molecular dynamic simulations are conducted to obtain statistical properties of nanotube strength and stress for reliability analysis. Reliabilities of nanotubes at various temperatures are also discussed.