Although the nonequilibrium behavior of polymer solutions is generally well understood, particularly in extensional flow, there remain several unanswered questions for dilute solutions in simple shear flow, and full quantitative agreement with experiments has not been achieved. For example, experimental viscosity data exhibit qualitative differences in shear-thinning exponents, the shear rate for the onset of shear-thinning, and high-shear Newtonian plateaus depending on polymer semiflexibility, contour length, and solvent quality. While polymer models are able to incorporate all of these effects through various spring force laws, bending potentials, excluded volume (EV) potentials, and hydrodynamic interaction (HI), the inclusion of each piece of physics has not been systematically matched to experimentally observed behavior. Furthermore, attempts to develop multiscale models (in the sense of representing an arbitrarily small or large polymer chain) which can make quantitative predictions are hindered by the lack of ability to fully match the results of bead-rod models, often used to represent a polymer chain at the Kuhn-step level, with bead-spring models, which take into account the entropic elasticity. In light of these difficulties, this work aims to develop a general model based on the so-called FENE-Fraenkel spring, originally formulated by Larson and co-workers [J. Chem. Phys. 124 (2006)], which can span the range from rigid rod to traditional entropic spring, as well as include a bending potential, EV, and HI. As we show, this model can reproduce, and smoothly move between, a wide range of previously observed polymer solution rheology in shear flow.
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Dilute polymer solutions under shear flow: Comprehensive qualitative analysis using a bead-spring chain model with a FENE-Fraenkel spring
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March 2023
Research Article|
March 01 2023
Dilute polymer solutions under shear flow: Comprehensive qualitative analysis using a bead-spring chain model with a FENE-Fraenkel spring
I. Pincus
;
I. Pincus
a)
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University
, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail: ravi.jagadeeshan@monash.edu. URL: https://users.monash.edu.au/rprakash/.
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A. Rodger
;
A. Rodger
2
School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University
, New South Wales 2109, Australia
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J. Ravi Prakash
J. Ravi Prakash
a)
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University
, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail: ravi.jagadeeshan@monash.edu. URL: https://users.monash.edu.au/rprakash/.
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; electronic mail: ravi.jagadeeshan@monash.edu. URL: https://users.monash.edu.au/rprakash/.
J. Rheol. 67, 373–402 (2023)
Article history
Received:
June 03 2022
Accepted:
November 15 2022
Citation
I. Pincus, A. Rodger, J. Ravi Prakash; Dilute polymer solutions under shear flow: Comprehensive qualitative analysis using a bead-spring chain model with a FENE-Fraenkel spring. J. Rheol. 1 March 2023; 67 (2): 373–402. https://doi.org/10.1122/8.0000517
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