Micro-Macro Modeling of Polymeric Fluids with Multi-Bead Polymer Chain

TL;DR

This paper develops a detailed multi-bead polymer chain model that links microscopic behaviors like bond stretching to macroscopic fluid stress responses, advancing the understanding of polymeric fluid dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a thermodynamically consistent micro-macro model extending the classical dumbbell model to multi-bead chains, capturing complex microscopic behaviors.

Findings

Model accurately describes bond stretching and alignment under flow

Links microscopic polymer configurations to macroscopic stress responses

Provides a framework for simulating complex polymeric fluid behaviors

Abstract

This work extends the classical dumbbell (two-bead) model of polymer chains to a more detailed multi-bead representation, where each polymer chain consists of $N$ beads connected by $N-1$ springs. We develop a thermodynamically consistent micro-macro model based on the energy variational method to describe the coupled dynamics of polymer configurations and fluid flow. The resulting framework captures complex microscopic behaviors, such as bond stretching and alignment under flow, and links them to macroscopic stress responses.