title: Hydrodynamic screening of star polymers in shear flow.
abstract: The mutual effects of the conformations of a star polymer in simple shear flow and the deformation of the solvent flow field are investigated by a hybrid mesoscale simulation technique. We characterize the flow field near the star polymer as a function of its functionality (arm number) f . A strong screening of the imposed flow is found inside the star polymer, which increases with increasing f . To elucidate the importance of hydrodynamic screening, we compare results for hydrodynamic and random solvents. The dependence of the polymer orientation angle on the Weissenberg number shows a power law behavior with super-universal exponent --independent of hydrodynamic and excluded-volume interactions. In contrast, the polymer rotation frequency changes qualitatively when hydrodynamic interactions are switched on.
authors: Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425, Jülich, Germany. m.ripoll@fz-juelich.de
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Ripoll
authors: R G
authors: RG
authors: Winkler
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Gompper
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004058:Diffusion; D004548:Elasticity; D044085:Microfluidics; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D009068:Movement; D010825:Physics / Q000379:methods*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D033081:Shear Strength; D012984:Software; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D012997:Solvents
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