Viscoelasticity of a stretched polymer chain with ends exposed to a constant force

Abstract

The viscoelasticity of a stretched polymer chain with its end particles exposed to oppositely acting forces is studied via collisional molecular dynamics and analytically. A simple model according to which a polymer molecule is a chain of particles linked through freely jointed elastic bonds is adopted. The analytical theory is in good agreement with the results of the computer simulation of time correlation functions in the range of large-scale motions of a polymer molecule. It is found that the decay of correlation functions K αβμν of fluctuations of the microscopic stress tensor of a chain, K zzzz, K zαzα , = K zαzα , (α = x, y; z is the axis along which the forces act), is slowed down, and their value increases relative to the respective correlation functions of a chain with fixed ends. The greater the force, the higher this difference. The correlation functions that are transverse with respect to the z axis do not differ from those for chains with fixed ends. The results show that, in the calculation of time correlation functions of strongly stretched polymer chains, different statistical ensembles are not equivalent; this must be taken into account in the dynamic theories of heavily deformed polymers.