Brownian dynamics simulations of planar mixed flows of polymer solutions at finite concentrations

Abstract Periodic boundary conditions for planar mixed flows are implemented in the context of a multi-chain Brownian dynamics simulation algorithm. The effect of shear rate γ , and extension rate ϵ , on the size of polymer chains, 〈 R e 2 〉 , and on the polymer contribution to viscosity, η , is examined for solutions of FENE dumbbells at finite concentrations, with excluded volume interactions between the beads taken into account. The influence of the mixedness parameter, χ , and flow strength, Γ , on 〈 R e 2 〉 and η , is also examined, where χ → 0 corresponds to pure shear flow, and χ → 1 corresponds to pure extensional flow. It is shown that there exists a critical value, χ c , such that the flow is shear dominated for χ χ c , and extension dominated for χ > χ c .