FUNCTIONALITY DEPENDENCE FOR MOLECULAR NONAFFINE DEFORMATION OF POLYMER NETWORKS

The dependence of the stress-strain behaviour of polymer networks on f unctionality is investigated. The network is described in terms of a g as of simple units of arbitrary functionality f. The macroscopic defor mation is taken into account by constraints, which allow molecular non affine deformations. For Gaussian network strands the model leads to t he same stress-strain dependence as in the well known model, but shows a modified dependence of the modulus on functionality. (C) 1997 Elsev ier Science Ltd.