Terminal flow region 7 -dependence

The question we now wish to address concerns the WLF equation. Why does the temperature dependence of the shift factor have this form for temperatures ranging from the T into the terminal flow region ... 

Doi and Edwards analysed the described disentangling process of the primitive chain in more detail. As in the case of the Rouse-motion, the dynamics of the disentangling process can also be represented as a superposition of independent modes. Again, only one time constant, the disentangling time Td, is included, and it sets the time scale for the complete process. In the Doi-Edwards treatment, ra is identified with the longest relaxation time. Calculations result in an expression for the time dependent shear modulus in the terminal flow region. It has the form... 

The relaxation behavior of amorphous polymers was dominated by two processes, the glass-rubber transition and the terminal flow region, which are both characterized by a temperature dependence given by the WLF equation. For polyethylene, one cannot expect a flow transition because flow is suppressed by the crystallites in the sample. The fact is that for linear polyethylene, i.e., polyethylene with high crystallinity, there is no WLF-controlled process at all. The numerous measurements in the literature provide clear evidence that the two processes observed in linear polyethylene, a and 7, are both based on activated mechanisms obeying the Arrhenius law. The process... 

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