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Published on: September 26, 2016
PolySTRAND Model of Flow-Induced Nucleation in Polymers
Daniel J Read1, Claire McIlroy2,3, Chinmay Das1
1School of Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We develop a thermodynamic continuum-level model, polySTRAND, for flow-induced nucleation in polymers suitable for use in computational process modeling. The model's molecular origins ensure that it accounts properly for flow and nucleation dynamics of polydisperse systems and can be extended to include effects of exhaustion of highly deformed chains and nucleus roughness. It captures variations with the key processing parameters, flow rate, temperature, and molecular weight distribution. Under strong flow, long chains are over-represented within the nucleus, leading to superexponential nucleation rate growth with shear rate as seen in experiments.
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