Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1697685 | Journal of Manufacturing Systems | 2012 | 6 Pages |
Abstract
Precise control of the lengths of carbon nanotube (CNT) and other nanostructures is important for various industrial applications. However, time-resolution (â¼1Â min) of current in situ measurements does not allow control of lengths to within 20Â nm. We present an approach to combine intermittent in situ measurements with length estimates from a fast atomistic Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of CNT synthesis. The MC simulation time was reduced by >70% through prediction of the nonlinear and nonstationary growth increments, and initialization of relaxation process (the most computationally intensive step in MC simulations) with the near-optimum predicted positions, leading to one of the longest (â¼194Â nm) CNTs from atomistic simulations. A utility function of growth predictions was defined so that its maximization specified the end-point of the synthesis process. Extensive simulation studies indicate that the approach can be used to control CNT lengths to within 1Â nm of specifications.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Engineering
Control and Systems Engineering
Authors
Changqing Cheng, Satish T.S. Bukkapatnam, Lionel M. Raff, Ranga Komanduri,