Dynamics of chains grafted on solid wall during polymer melt extrusion

摘要

The objective of the present work is the mathematical modeling of the dynamics of polymer molecules grafted on a solid boundary during polymer melt extrusion. This topic is closely related to the long-standing problem of polymer flow instabilities encountered in industry when extruding melts. In order to describe the behavior of the tethered chains, we introduce the bond vector probability distribution function (BVPDF) which appears to be a simple, yet effective mathematical 'tool'. The bond vector, i.e. the tangent vector to a polymer chain depending on the position along the chain and on time, describes the local geometry via its direction and the local stretching of the chain via its length. The BVPDF contains all information about the geometry of the ensemble of chains. Via averaging over the BVPDF we can calculate all interesting macrsocopic quantities, e.g. the thickness of and stress in the layer of tethered molecules. The time dependence of the BVPDF yields the time evolution of the system. We derive the equation of motion for the BVPDF taking into account all important mechanisms, such as reptation and (convective) constraint release. Besides that, we show that all macroscopic quantities of practical interest can be expressed via second order moments of this distribution function. ud