Effect of van der Waals interaction on the mode I fracture characteristics of graphene sheet

• Atomistic model in F.E. has been employed to characterize fracture in graphene.
• Significant effect of non-bonded forces was reported at small interlayer spacing's.
• Proposed numerical model is less numerical intensive and deals with fewer degrees of freedom.

In this paper a study has been performed to investigate the effect of van der Waals interaction forces on the mode I (opening mode) fracture characteristics of a graphene sheet. Finite element based atomistic approach was employed to perform the investigation, where graphene structure was assumed to behave like a space frame structure. Few graphene sheets were modeled in finite element environment with different set of interlayer spacing. Modified virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) was employed to estimate the strain energy release rate (SERR) under mode I of fracture criteria. Significant effect of van der Waals forces was observed on the mode I fracture characteristics of graphene.