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

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Summary

Introduction

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].

Stress Tensor
Small Shear Rate Expansion in the Stationary State
Linear Viscoelastic Regime
Brownian Dynamics Results
Linear Viscoelastic Behavior
Non-Linear Regime
Comparison with Experimental Data
Conclusions

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