Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 31, 2026

Synthesis of Cyclic Polymers and Characterization of Their Diffusive Motion in the Melt State at the Single Molecule Level
Published on: September 26, 2016
Systematic coarse graining flowing polymer melts: thermodynamically guided simulations and resulting constitutive
1Institut für Polymere Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 10, HCI H541, CH-8093 Zürich. patrick.ilg@mat.ethz.ch
Abstract:
Complex fluids, such as polymers, colloids, liquid-crystals etc., show intriguing viscoelastic properties, due to the complicated interplay between flow-induced structure formation and dynamical behavior. Starting from microscopic models of complex fluids, a systematic coarse-graining method is presented that allows us to derive closed-form and thermodynamically consistent constitutive equations for such fluids. Essential ingredients of the proposed approach are thermodynamically guided simulations within a consistent coarse-graining scheme. In addition to this new type of multiscale simulations, we reconstruct the building blocks that constitute the thermodynamically consistent coarse-grained model. We illustrate the method for low-molecular polymer melts, which are subject to different imposed flow fields like planar shear and different elongational flows. The constitutive equation for general flow conditions we obtain shows rheological behavior including shear thinning, normal stress differences, and elongational viscosities in good agreement with reference results.
More Related Videos
09:17Structure-Based Simulation and Sampling of Transcription Factor Protein Movements along DNA from Atomic-Scale Stepping to Coarse-Grained Diffusion
Published on: March 1, 2022
06:37Analyzing Melts and Fluids from Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations with the UMD Package
Published on: September 17, 2021
Related Concept Videos
Step-Growth Polymerization: Overview
Many natural and synthetic polymers are produced by...
Polymer Classification: Crystallinity
Crystalline domains are the regions where polymer chains are aligned in an orderly manner and held together in proximity by intermolecular forces. For example, chains in the crystalline domains of polyethylene and nylon are bound together by van der Waals...
The Fluid Mosaic Model
Molecular Weight of Step-Growth Polymers
As the step-growth polymerization involves step-wise condensation of monomers, the molecular weight also builds up eventually. Consequently, high molecular weight polymers are obtained at the late stages of the polymerization, where 99% of monomers have been consumed.
The extent of the...
Polymers: Molecular Weight Distribution
Determination of Molar Masses of Polymers II