Numerical Study of Extension Rheological Properties of Polymer Solutions using FENE Model

Abstract

Dilute polymer solutions represent a complex rheological response. A finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) bead-spring chain model for dilute solutions of polymer molecules in a Newtonian solvent is employed to describe the bead-bead interaction within a molecule. Brownian dynamics simulation is used to capture the most important rheological properties of dilute polymer solutions. A program based on this model is developed to simulate the steady elongational flow and inception of elongational flow, and the flow situations and the rheological material functions are investigated. Semi-implicit predictor-corrector methods are introduced and the results qualitatively agree with rheological theory.

Keywords:

• Brownian dynamics
• Dilute polymer solutions
• Elongational flow
• Extension rheological properties
• FENE bead-spring model

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Thanks to Chen Jingbo, Shen Changyu, and Cao Wei for your help. This paper is supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 10590354, and No. 10772164).