title: Highly entangled polymer primitive chain network simulations based on dynamic tube dilation.
abstract: The concept of dynamic tube dilation (DTD) is here used to formulate a new simulation scheme to obtain the linear viscoelastic response of long chains with a large number of entanglements. The new scheme is based on the primitive chain network model previously proposed by some of the authors, and successfully employed to simulate linear and nonlinear behavior of moderately entangled polymers. Scaling laws are generated by the DTD concept, and allow for prediction of the linear response of very long chains on the basis of suitable simulations performed on shorter ones, without introducing adjustable parameters. Tests of the method against existing data for linear monodisperse polyisoprene and polystyrene show good quantitative agreement.
authors.affiliation: Material Science Laboratory, Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Chiba 299-0265, Japan.
authors.forename: Takatoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yaoita
authors.forename: Takeharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Isaki
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Masubuchi
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ianniruberto
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Greco
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Marrucci