A CREEP COMPLIANCE SIMULATION STUDY OF THE VISCOSITY OF ENTANGLED POLYMER MELTS

A new Monte-Carlo model is proposed in which the viscosity of entangle d polymer melts is obtained directly from their creep compliance. In t he model, the melt is represented by a dense array of chains which int eract through entanglements placed on the sites of a diamond lattice. The chains are allowed to slip through entanglements by use of a therm ally activated process. For chains of monodisperse length M, we find t hat the viscosity scales as eta(0) similar to M(3.46+/-0.05), in agree ment with experimental observation.