Hydrodynamic screening of star polymers in shear flow
Abstract
The mutual effects of the conformations of a star polymer in simple shear flow and the deformation of the solvent flow field are investigated by a hybrid mesoscale simulation technique. We characterize the flow field near the star polymer as a function of its functionality (arm number) f . A strong screening of the imposed flow is found inside the star polymer, which increases with increasing f . To elucidate the importance of hydrodynamic screening, we compare results for hydrodynamic and random solvents. The dependence of the polymer orientation angle on the Weissenberg number shows a power law behavior with super-universal exponent --independent of hydrodynamic and excluded-volume interactions. In contrast, the polymer rotation frequency changes qualitatively when hydrodynamic interactions are switched on.
- Publication:
-
European Physical Journal E
- Pub Date:
- August 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1140/epje/i2006-10220-0
- Bibcode:
- 2007EPJE...23..349R
- Keywords:
-
- 82.20.Wt;
- 83.50.-v;
- 66.20.+d;
- Computational modeling;
- simulation;
- Deformation and flow;
- Viscosity of liquids;
- diffusive momentum transport