Polymers Resist Confinement Deformation

In the model of Agarwal and Khakhar [57] the polymer molecules are taken to be bead-rod chains with the hydrodynamic forces concentrated at the beads. The chains may bend about a bead, and a spring force acts to restore the chain to is equilibrium conformation, which is a straight chain. The connecting rods are inextensible. The system is confined to a plane, and the chains diffuse due to Brownian forces resisted by hydrodynamic forces. Hydrodynamic forces resulting from an imposed shear flow deform and orient the molecules. Two chains may react and combine to form a longer chain if the chain ends approach to within the capture radius (a) and if the angle between the chains is less than the critical value (0 ). The reaction is assumed to be very fast (kfj k j ) so that every collision that satisfies the above criteria results in... 

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