Variance reduced Brownian simulation of a bead-spring chain under steady shear flow considering hydrodynamic interaction effects

To obtain numerical estimates for the properties of a model for polymers in dilute theta solutions in its long-chain limit we follow a stochastic appr oach to polymer kinetic theory. The model takes into account configuration- dependent hydrodynamic interaction (HI) and simplifies to the Zimm bead-spr ing chain model in the case of preaveraged HI, for which parameter-free "un iversal ratios" such as the ratio between radius of gyration and hydrodynam ic radius are known. The Chebyshev polynomial method and a variance reducti on simulation technique are used to implement an efficient Brownian dynamic s simulation. We resolve the full dependence of several characteristic rati os versus both chain length and hydrodynamic interaction parameter, we extr apolate their values to determine universal behaviors, and compare with ana lytical and experimental results. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ S0021-9606(00)51035-6].