Rheology of Confined Polymer Melts under Shear Flow: Strong Adsorption Limit

Abstract

The dynamics of a confined polymer melt between strong adsorbing surfaces is considered theoretically. In particular the influence of bridging on the theological behavior is investigated. It is shown that the bridges are very important for small enough shear velocities. Several regimes of qualitatively different theological behavior depending on the shear velocity are predicted, one of;the intermediate regimes being characterized by a power law decrease of the shear stress as a function of the velocity.