Eshelby ensemble of highly viscous flow out of equilibrium

TL;DR

This paper extends the Eshelby ensemble model to predict the heat capacity of glass formers during cooling, successfully matching experimental data for polymers and other materials, thus linking microscopic rearrangements to macroscopic thermal properties.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the Eshelby ensemble to calculate heat capacity during the glass transition, bridging microscopic structural rearrangements with thermodynamic measurements.

Findings

Model accurately predicts heat capacity across different glass formers.

The approach applies to polymers and other glassy materials.

Results align well with experimental data from literature.

Abstract

The recent description of the highly viscous flow in terms of irreversible structural Eshelby rearrangements is extended to calculate the heat capacity of a glass former at a constant cooling rate through the glass transition. The result is compared to measured data from the literature, showing that the explanation works both for polymers and other glass formers.