Reliability Analysis of Carbon Nanotube-Based Nano-Truss Under Various Loading Conditions

Novel three-dimensional carbon nanotube networks have recently attracted significant interest due to their highly desirable material properties. In various potential applications, these structures may be subjected to various loading conditions. Furthermore, they are encountered with various inherent uncertainties which potentially could have a great effect on the mechanical behavior of these novel structures. The structural reliability framework provides a useful tool for considering the random nature of parameters in the analysis and design of new structures. Therefore, in this paper, the reliability analysis of a carbon nanotube-based nano-truss subjected to various loading conditions is investigated for the first time in the literature. The reliability analysis is conducted by the use of the first-order reliability method and Crude Monte Carlo approach. The results revealed that the nano-truss has larger reliability when subjected to uniaxial tension. This physically means that the performance of this new structure in the tension load is much better than that in shear load. This study provides a new perspective on understanding the mechanical behavior of carbon nanotube-based nano-truss.