Related papers: Rethinking failure in polymer networks: a probabil…
Analytical relations for the mechanical response of single polymer chains are valuable for modeling purposes, on both the molecular and the continuum scale. These relations can be obtained using statistical thermodynamics and an idealized…
Predicting the macroscopic mechanical behavior of polymeric materials from the micro-structural features has remained a challenge for decades. Existing theoretical models often fail to accurately capture the experimental data, due to…
We employ a mathematical model to analyze stress chains in thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) with a microphase-separated spherical structure composed of triblock copolymers. The model represents stress chains during uniaxial and biaxial…
Double polymer networks exhibit a striking enhancement of toughness compared to single networks, yet the microscopic mechanisms governing stress redistribution, damage evolution, and fracture remain incompletely understood. Using…
The relationship between the topological architecture of polymer networks and their macroscopic rupture remains a fundamental challenge in polymer physics. Recent coarse-grained simulations have revealed that the dependence of stretch at…
We examine the thermally-induced fracture of an unstrained polymer chain of discrete segments coupled by an anharmonic potential by means of Molecular Dynamics simulation with a Langevin thermostat. Cases of both under- and over-damped…
Polymer network models construct the constitutive relationships of a broader polymer network from the behavior of a single polymer chain (e.g. viscoelastic response to applied forces, applied electromagnetic fields, etc.). Network models…
Materials with network-like microstructure, including polymers, are the backbone for many natural and human-made materials such as gels, biological tissues, metamaterials, and rubbers. Fracture processes in these networked materials are…
This study focuses on comparing the individual polymer chain dynamics in an entangled polymeric liquid under different shear and extension rates. Polymer chains under various shear rates and extension rates were simulated using a…
In biological materials, strong binding despite an applied load force is often based on clusters of dynamic bonds that share the load. Different macroscopic behaviors have been described depending on whether the load is shared locally or…
We study experimentally the fracture mechanisms of a model cohesive granular medium consisting of glass beads held together by solidified polymer bridges. The elastic response of this material can be controlled by changing the cross-linking…
It is widely known that hydrogels, a class of soft materials made of a polymer chain network, are prone to fatigue failure. To understand the underlying mechanism, here we simulate polymer scission and fatigue initiation in the vicinity of…
A fundamental theory is presented for the mechanical response of polymer networks undergoing large deformation which seamlessly integrates statistical mechanical principles with macroscopic thermodynamic constitutive theory. Our formulation…
While stretching of most polymer chains leads to rather featureless force-extension diagrams, some, notably DNA, exhibit non-trivial behavior with a distinct plateau region. Here we propose a unified theory that connects force-extension…
A priori assumption in micromechanical analysis of polymeric networks is that the constitutive polymer strands are of equal length. Monodisperse distribution of strands, however, is merely a simplifying assumption. In this paper, we relax…
It is common to study polymer physics through the use of idealized single-chain models, and the most popular of these is the freely jointed chain model. In certain thermodynamic ensembles, statistical mechanical treatment of this model is…
Polymer entanglements lead to complicated topological constraints and interactions between neighbouring chains in a dense solution or melt. Entanglements can be treated in a mean field approach, within the famous reptation model, since they…
We introduce a coarse-grained stochastic network dynamics (CGSND) framework for modeling deformation and rupture in polymer networks. The method replaces explicit molecular dynamics (MD) or coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) with…
We have used kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to study the kinetics of unfolding of cross-linked polymer chains under mechanical loading. As the ends of a chain are pulled apart, the force transmitted by each crosslink increases until it…
We consider the rupture dynamics of a homopolymer chain pulled at one end at a constant loading rate. Our model of the breakable polymer is related to the Rouse chain, with the only difference that the interaction between the monomers is…