Investigation of mechanical behavior of BNNT-reinforced magnesium nanocomposite using molecular dynamics simulations

Magnesium nanocomposite is one of the successful innovations in the field of nanocomposites to provide the used current material in medical, aerospace and automotive for a light but high strength. The role of BNNT is important in the reinforcing of nanocomposites considering special characteristics of BNNT. in this research, magnesium nanocomposites are reinforced by boron nitride nanotubes and the mechanical properties of these nanocomposites under uniaxial tensile load in the axial direction of the nanotubes have been investigated by the molecular dynamics method by the Lammps software. Also, the coefficients of the interatomic potential function of magnesium atoms have been calculated using the law of composition and the data extracted by Gaussian software. The results of molecular dynamics simulations indicated that the mechanical properties of magnesium-based metal nanocomposite have improved by the addition of boron nitride nanotubes. The content of boron nitride nanotubes of (12,0), (14,0), (16,0), and (18,0) as the reinforcements of magnesium matrix has increased the elastic modulus of nanocomposite by 13%, 14.9%, 16.2%, and 17%, respectively. Th other results of this research also shows that the elastic behavior of nanocomposites is independent from strain rate changes. Also, by performing this simulation in a wide temperature range, it was observed changes in the mechanical properties of the nanocomposite at different temperatures.