For a tube, . A cut normal to its axis crosses ten axial load-bearing C-C bonds in the ideal unstrained honeycomb geometry. Assuming equal load sharing and simultaneous failure at per bond,
The graphene areal mass is , giving linear mass density
since the tex unit has . Thus the ideal carbon nanotube tenacity is
This neglects vacancies, curvature-induced changes in bond strength, thermal activation, imperfect load sharing and structural relaxation at failure. An aligned macroscopic fibre is a network of finite tubes or bundles: sliding, weak intertube shear transfer, imperfect alignment, defects and unequal load participation limit its strength. The nominal fibre diameter alone does not turn it into one defect-free covalent cylinder, explaining why a value near can be much lower than this ideal single-tube estimate.
Textile linear density 2026-10-20
Mass per unit length of a filament or yarn. The tex unit equals one gram per kilometre, or .