Effect of Chain Length in Multiscale Constitutive Modeling of Polymer Materials

Abstract

A series of molecular models have been developed to predict the bulk elastic properties of polyimide and polycarbonate polymer systems. Specifically, the two polymer systems have been modeled for a range of polymer chain lengths to predict the influence of molecular weight on Young’s modulus. In general, the results show that as the chain length increases the predicted properties also increase. This result matches observed behavior and is consistent with the concept of larger polymer chain lengths having increased steric hindrances on the molecular level, thus providing stiffer bulk-level materials.