Abstract
A numerical technique for determination of the polymer chain length distribution from mathematical models of polymerization systems is presented. The proposed method, which can be applied to the class of model equations whose z-transform exists, is based upon a z-transform inversion formula that has the form of an Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform. A computer algorithm that employs the FFT to efficiently obtain numerical results from the derived formulas is summarized and an error analysis is given. An example problem that describes the polycondensation polymerization kinetics of bisphenol-A to polycarbonate is introduced as a realistic application of the proposed method. It is shown that for this example, both the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed z-transform inversion technique are superior to another independent method for obtaining the polymer chain length distribution that is based upon direct numerical integration. A methodology for identification of polymerization kinetic rate parameters from experimental polymer molecular weight distributions is also suggested.
Published Version
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