Modeling viscoelastic resistance of deposited polymer during olefin polymerization

As olefin polymerization proceeds on a heterogeneous catalyst, the polymer so formed gets deposited on the catalyst fragment. This presents diffusiona l resistance to further monomer transport to the catalyst fragment. In the recent past, we considered that this deposited polymer brings in additional viscous deformational resistance to the otherwise Fickian diffusion, there by limiting the polymerization rate. In the present work we account for the rheological behavior of polymers being not just viscous, but viscoelastic. We find that the elastic deformation may largely facilitate the overall po lymer deformation in situations where monomer transport would have been pre dicted to suffer severe limitations if only viscous deformation were consid ered. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.