Abstract
We have recently solved the tumbling-snake model for concentrated polymer solutions and entangled melts in the academic case of a monodisperse sample. Here, we extend these studies and provide the stationary solutions of the tumbling-snake model both analytically, for small shear rates, and via Brownian dynamics simulations, for a bidisperse sample over a wide range of shear rates and model parameters. We further show that the tumbling-snake model bears the necessary capacity to compare well with available linear and non-linear rheological data for bidisperse systems. This capacity is added to the already documented ability of the model to accurately predict the shear rheology of monodisperse systems.
Highlights
Understanding the rheological behavior of polymeric systems is of paramount importance in current efforts to improve and optimize upon their processing properties
All figures presented in this manuscript are generated using the variable link tension coefficient; given that the constant ε predictions come with undesirable consequences, we choose not to show these predictions
We discussed the features of the tumbling-snake model for entangled bidisperse polymer melts subjected to steady-state shear flow
Summary
Understanding the rheological behavior of polymeric systems is of paramount importance in current efforts to improve and optimize upon their processing properties. These works illustrated that the tumbling-snake model is able of capturing the damping behavior of the transient viscosity in start-up shear experiments at high rates [33,34,35]; at the same time, it correctly predicts the absence of such undershoots in both normal stress coefficients, in line with experimental data [24,28] This damping behavior has been attributed to the shear-induced rotational motion of chains [28,35], in line with atomistic non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations [36,37,38].
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