Modelling contraction flows of bi-disperse polymer blends using the RoliePoly and Rolie-Double-Poly equations

The flow of a bi-disperse polymer melt through a hyperbolic contraction is simulated using the recently proposed Rolie-Double-Poly constitutive model (Boudara et al., 2019). This simplified tube model takes account of the nonlinear coupling between the dynamics of the long and short-chains in a bi-disperse blend, in particular it reproduces the enhancement of the stretch relaxation time that arises from the coupling between constraint release and chain retraction. Flow calculations are performed by implementing both the Rolie-Double-Poly and multimode Rolie-Poly models in OpenFOAM using the RheolTool library. While both models predict very similar flow patterns, the enhanced stretch relaxation of the Rolie-Double-Pol models results in an increase in the molecular stretch of the long chain component in the pure extensional flow along the centre-line of the contraction, but a decrease in the stretch in shear-flow near the channel walls.