Tagged chain diffusion equation and effective friction tensor in dense polymer solutions

Modeling of Polymer Friction on Boundaries of Solids and Inside Materials

Friction models are proposed for anisotropic and heterogeneous dry friction on boundaries of polymer solids. Unit vectors and oriented angles of sliding velocities, radii of curvature and unit normal vectors of sliding trajectories are taken as independent variables in constitutive equations of anisotropic and heterogeneous friction. Heterogeneous dry friction of a polymer pin in pin-on-disc tests is illustrated in the case of Archimedean spiral trajectory. Individual molecular chains composing polymer materials can move inside the material with a high degree of friction anisotropy. The resistance of macromolecule motion is considered with respect to micromechanical models of macromolecules, their kinematics, and friction laws. Two approaches are applied for modeling of anisotropic friction inside polymer materials: continuum-based models (anisotropic viscous friction) and micromechanical models (anisotropic dry friction). Examples of macromolecule dry friction are considered under conditions of spinning and sliding of a disc-like macromolecule and snake-like sliding of a long macromolecule.

Effects of the bead-bead potential on the restricted rotational diffusion of nonrigid macromolecules

The influence of the bead-bead interaction on the rotational dynamics of macromolecules which are immersed into a solution has been investigated by starting from the microscopic theory of the macromolecular motion, i.e., from a Fokker-Planck equation for the phase-space distribution function. From this equation, we then derived an explicit expression for the configuration-space distribution function of a nonrigid molecule which is immobilized on a surface. This function contains all the information about the interaction among the beads as well as the effects from the surrounding solvent particles and from the surface. For the restricted rotational motion, the dynamics of the macromolecules can now be characterized in terms of a rotational diffusion coefficient as well as a radial distribution functions. Detailed computations for the rotational diffusion coefficient and the distribution functions have been carried out for HOOKEAN, finitely extensible nonlinear elastic, and a DNA type bead-bead interaction.