An attempt was made here to model numerically and analyze the effects of vacancy defects in carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets on their effective mechanical properties. The effects of these defects in various configurations (armchair, chiral, zig-zag) of carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets were reported depending upon the direction of the applied load. A detailed finite element analysis was used to predict their axial mechanical properties.

Effects of Vacancy Defects on Mechanical Properties of Graphene/Carbon Nanotubes: a Numerical Modeling. D.Askari, M.N.Ghasemi-Nejhad: Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 2011, 8[4], 783-94