The density effect of van der Waals forces on the elastic modules in graphite layers

• We modeled multi layer graphene sheets using full nonlinear spring elements.
• We investigated the density effect of van der Waals forces on the elastic properties of graphite layers.
• We observed that different densities have different effects on the elastic modules.
• It was obtained that the attitude of effect of van der Waals forces depends on the chirality of the layers.
• It was observed that the increase in the number of layers just intensifies the effect of van der Waals forces.

The influence of van der Waals forces as interlayer non-bonded interactions on the elastic modules in graphene structures based on finite element modeling is the aim of this paper. The graphite layers and interlayer interactions were simulated using fully nonlinear spring-like elements. Detailed investigations were done for four various densities of interlayer interactions about different number of layers. Results indicate that flake’s properties show different behavior with respect to the various densities of interlayer forces. It is observed that the effect of van der Waals forces depends on the chirality of layers. Increasing the number of layers just intensify the effect of van der Waals forces. The results are compared with obtained results from molecular dynamic and finite element simulations in the open literature.