A DETAILED COMPARISON OF VARIOUS FENE DUMBBELL MODELS

The rheological behaviour of dilute solutions of finitely extensible n on-linear elastic (FENE) dumbbells in both steady state and transient shear and simple elongational flow is investigated. Three dumbbell mod els are compared: the original FENE model with the Warner spring force , which is treated by brownian dynamics simulations, and the FENE-P mo del based on the Peterlin approximation and the FENE-CR model as sugge sted by Chilcott and Rallison, which are treated by standard numerical techniques. It is shown that in the linear viscoelastic limit and in steady state flows the behaviour is similar, except for the FENE-CR du mbbell in shear flow, modelling a Boger fluid. In transient flows larg er differences appear. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.