Accessible and Quantitative Entangled Polymer Rheology Predictions, Suitable for Complex Flow Calculations

Abstract

Despite strong industrial interest, only recently have quantitative predictions for entangled polymer rheology become possible. Major advances are achieved with an alternative approach to entanglement modeling—slip-links. For example, the discrete slip-link model (DSM) allows for equilibrium and high-flow-rate predictions with a strong connection to a molecular basis. Slip-link models are applicable to arbitrary composition and chain architectures, but usually incur high numerical cost. Recent advances in coarse-graining allowed for a speedup of order one hundred, but further improvements are required for the ultimate goal—simulations of nonhomogeneous flows. On the other hand, it is possible to rely on advanced computational devices to obtain additional speed-up. GPUs are one of the most rapidly developing kind of computational devices, and provide immense computational power, but also have some critical restrictions on numerical operations. Since slip-link models have a unique level of description, our ...