TOWARDS REALISTIC RHEOLOGICAL MODELS FOR POLYMER MELT PROCESSING

Greatly needed improvements to rheological models of polymer fluids ca n best be made by understanding and modifying a model on the molecular level, where the physics governing real fluids are created. For this purpose, stochastic simulations are an indispensible tool. The usefuln ess of stochastic simulations for kinetic theory models are well-known . In this paper, we show that the class of Rivlin-Sawyers, or K-BKZ, i ntegral models is also subject to a molecular interpretation and can b e simulated using stochastic techniques. We also illustrate how an exi sting molecular model can be modified, resulting in better predictions of viscoelastic behavior. For this we formulate a stochastic simulati on of a reptation model modified to account for double reptation and t ube-length fluctuations.