0000000000358493
AUTHOR
B. De Cindio
Transient birefringence of polymer melts in intermittent shear flow: Model analysis of the non-linear viscoelastic behaviour
A non-linear viscoelastic model has been used to interpret transient flow birefringence in changing shear flow for a polymer melt. It is shown how the new model is consistent with the basic hypothesis of the linear stress-optical law. Stress growth in shear flow and relaxation after different amounts of shearing are compared with the predictions of the non-linear model. A good agreement between experimental data and theoretical predictions is found.
Shear behaviour of undiluted polyisobutylenes
Some new data in shear flow are presented for two commercial polyisobutylene samples, namely Vistanex LMMH and L 100. In particular beyond a few steady state results, the tangential stress build-up after a sudden imposition of a shear rate and the decay after cessation of steady shear flow have been collected. The data are used to further test a constitutive equation already advanced by some of the authors. The comparison seems to confirm the validity of the proposed model, whose single adjustable parameter is shown to be independent of molecular weight.