A grillage model for predicting wrinkles in annular graphene under circular shearing

Abstract

This paper is concerned with a Timoshenko grillage model for modeling the wrinkling phenomenon in annular graphene under circular shearing applied at its inner edge. By calibrating the grillage model results against the molecular mechanics (MM) results, the grillage model comprising beams of elliptical cross-section orientated along the carbon-carbon bond has section dimensions of 0.06 nm for the major axis length and 0.036 nm for the minor axis length. Moreover, the beams are connected to one another at 0.00212 nm from the geometric centric. This eccentric connection of beams allows the proposed grillage model to cater for the cross-couplings among bonds that produce the out-of-plane wrinkling pattern. The out-of-plane to in-plane bending stiffnesses' ratio is 0.36, and the cross bending stiffness provided by the ellipse eccentricity is 0.025 times that of the in-plane bending stiffness. Besides furnishing identical wave numbers as well as amplitudes and wavelengths that are in good agreement with MM results, the grillage model can capture wrinkling patterns with a boundary layer, whereas plate and membrane models could not mimic the boundary layer. © 2013 American Institute of Physics.