Multiscale analysis of carbon nanotube-reinforced nanofiber scaffolds

Biopolymers play a significant role in tissue engineering, as they simulate the physiological environment required for the development of tissue cultures. Use of carbon nanotube polymeric scaffolds for tissue engineering applications has gained attention recently due to the enhanced mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes. In this paper, a hierarchical approach by studying the atomistic properties of carbon nanotube based polymers using molecular dynamics and coupling the scales through complex multi-scale nonlinear hyperelastic material-based mathematical homogenization models are developed. These homogenization methods offer a systematic and rigorous treatment of up-scaling the properties from the micro or nanoscale to the macroscales. The material constitutive properties estimated using the developed methods for nanotube polymeric scaffold materials show excellent comparison with experimental studies.