Anisotropy of shear relaxation in primitive chain network simulations for entangled polymers confined between flat walls

Abstract

Anisotropic shear relaxation is an interesting but rarely discussed issue in polymer dynamics under confinement [Abberton et al., Macromolecules, 48, 7631, 2015]. According to the earlier study of bead spring simulations for an unentangled polymer melt confined between two flat plates, the shear relaxation modulus taken perpendicular to the interface is accelerated by decreasing the distance between plates, whereas the parallel component is unchanged. This study observed similar anisotropic shear relaxation for entangled polymer melts under confinement in multi-chain slip-link simulations (primitive chain network simulations). The analysis demonstrated that the accelerated relaxation in the perpendicular component reflects the Rouse-type constraint release dynamics, for which the coarsening is upper-limited by the geometry. This result suggests a novel mechanism for anisotropic shear relaxation different from the modified chain statistics under confinement considered for unentangled systems.

arXiv comment12 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Glass transitions and dynamics in thin polymer films: dielectric relaxation of thin films of polystyrene
• The Fluctuation Theorem and Green-Kubo Relations
• Local dynamics and primitive path analysis for a model polymer melt near a surface
• Primitive Chain Network Simulations of Entangled Melts of Symmetric and Asymmetric Star Polymers in Uniaxial Elongational Flows
• Wall slip in primitive chain network simulations of shear startup of entangled polymers and its effect on the shear stress undershoot

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Persistence length and plateau modulus of semiflexible entangled polymers in primitive chain network simulations