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Polymer margination in uniform shear flows

Venkat Balasubramanian1, Colin Denniston

  • 1Department of Applied Mathematics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada. vbalasu8@uwo.ca.

Soft Matter
|November 8, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Larger monomer size increases polymer margination towards surfaces in shear flow. Lattice-Boltzmann molecular dynamics simulations reveal this trend for polymer chains of varying lengths and monomer sizes.

Area of Science:

  • Polymer physics
  • Fluid dynamics
  • Computational science

Background:

  • Polymer margination, the tendency of polymers to migrate towards surfaces, is a critical phenomenon in various fluid flow applications.
  • Understanding factors influencing polymer behavior near surfaces is essential for controlling material properties and processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of monomer size on polymer margination in uniform shear flows.
  • To quantify the relationship between monomer size and polymer migration tendency using advanced simulation techniques.

Main Methods:

  • Extensive lattice-Boltzmann molecular dynamics (LBMD) simulations were employed.
  • Simulations considered polymer chains of lengths N = 16 and N = 32 monomers.
  • The effect of varying monomer size (a) and shear rates (γ̇) was systematically analyzed.

Main Results:

  • Chains with larger monomer radii exhibited a higher tendency for margination compared to chains with smaller radii, even at the same chain length (N).
  • Margination was quantified using distributions of chain extent (zm), center of mass normal to the surface (zc), and radius of gyration components (Rx, Ry, Rz).

Conclusions:

  • Monomer size is a significant factor influencing polymer margination in shear flows.
  • The findings provide valuable insights for designing and manipulating polymer behavior in confined flow environments.

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