Multiscale modeling and numerical analyses of the electric conductivity of CNT/polymer nanocomposites taking into account the tunneling effect

Tunneling effect plays a significant part in the extremely low electric percolation threshold and large conductivity of carbon nanotube (CNT)/polymer nanocomposites, which allows electric conduction between two CNTs separated at nanometric distances. In this work, a numerical model taking into account the nonlinear tunneling effect is proposed to evaluate the effective electric conductivity of CNT nanocomposites. The nonlinear finite element for