title: Identifying hydrodynamic interaction effects in tethered polymers in uniform flow.
abstract: Using Brownian dynamics simulations, we investigate how hydrodynamic interaction (HI) affects the behavior of tethered polymers in uniform flow. While it is expected that the HI within the polymer will lead to a dependency of the polymer's drag coefficient on the flow velocity, the interchain HI causes additional screening effects. For the case of two polymers in uniform flow with their tether points a finite distance apart, it is shown that the interchain HI not only causes a further reduction of the drag per polymer with decreasing distance between the tether points but simultaneously induces a polymer-polymer attraction as well. This attraction exhibits a characteristic maximum at intermediate flow velocities when the drag forces are of the order of the entropic forces. The effects uniquely attributed to the presence of HI can be verified experimentally.
authors.affiliation: Theoretische Physik I, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany. diego.kienle@uni-bayreuth.de
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kienle
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rzehak
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zimmermann