Related papers: Entropic Elasticity of Weakly Perturbed Polymers
Elastomers are used in a wide range of applications because of their large strain to failure, low density, and tailorable stiffness and toughness. The mechanical behavior of elastomers derives mainly from the entropic elasticity of the…
A conceptual difficulty in the Hooke's-law description of ideal Gaussian polymer-chain elasticity is sometimes apparent in analyses of experimental data or in physical models designed to simulate the behavior of biopolymers. The problem,…
We develop a segment-scale, force-based theory for the breakdown of the unentangled Rouse model and subsequent emergence of isotropic mesoscopic localization and entropic elasticity in chain polymer liquids in the absence of…
We consider equilibrium relaxation properties of the end-to-end distance and of principal components in a one-dimensional polymer chain model with nonlinear interaction between the beads. While for the single-well potentials these…
This study presents a Eulerian theory to elucidate the molecular kinematics in polymer networks and their connection to continuum deformation, grounded in fundamental statistical physics and thermodynamics. Three key innovations are…
Within the cell, biopolymers are often situated in constrained, fluid environments, e.g., cytoskeletal networks, stretched DNAs in chromatin. It is of paramount importance to understand quantitatively how they, utilizing their flexibility,…
In this work an approximated path integral model describing the dynamics of a inextensible chain is presented. To this purpose, the nonlinear constraints which enforce the property of inextensibility of the chain are relaxed and are just…
The Langevin dynamics of a self - interacting chain embedded in a quenched random medium is investigated by making use of the generating functional method and one - loop (Hartree) approximation. We have shown how this intrinsic disorder…
Strain energy density is calculated for a network of flexible chains with weak excluded-volume interactions (whose energy is small compared with thermal energy). Constitutive equations are developed for an incompressible network of chains…
We study theoretically the entropic elasticity of a semi-flexible polymer, such as DNA, confined to two dimensions. Using the worm-like-chain model we obtain an exact analytical expression for the partition function of the polymer pulled at…
Recent advances in single macromolecule experiments have sparked interest in the ensemble dependence of force-extension relations. The thermodynamic limit may not be attainable for such systems, that leads to inequivalence of the…
We analyze the nonequilibrium dynamics of single inextensible semiflexible biopolymers as stretching forces are applied at the ends. Based on different (contradicting) heuristic arguments, various scaling laws have been proposed for the…
We study the conformations of polymer chains in a poor solvent, with and without bending rigidity, by means of a simple statistical mechanics model. This model can be exactly solved for chains of length up to N=55 using exact enumeration…
Simulations are used to examine the microscopic origins of strain hardening in polymer glasses. While stress-strain curves for a wide range of temperature can be fit to the functional form predicted by entropic network models, many other…
Force versus extension curves measure entropic elasticity of single polymer chain in force spectroscopy experiments. A Worm-like Chain model is used to describe force extension experiments with an intrinsic chain parameter called…
Aiming at the mechanical properties of cross-linked biopolymers, we set up and analyze a model of two weakly bending wormlike chains subjected to a tensile force, with regularly spaced inter-chain bonds (cross-links) represented by harmonic…
Linear viscoelastic properties for a dilute polymer solution are predicted by modeling the solution as a suspension of non-interacting bead-spring chains. The present model, unlike the Rouse model, can describe the solution's rheological…
We introduce an anisotropic mean-field approach for the dynamics of semiflexible polymers under intermediate tension, the force range where a chain is partially extended but not in the asymptotic regime of a nearly straight contour. The…
A constitutive model is developed for the mechanical response of elastomers at finite strains. A polymer is treated as a network of linear chains linked by permanent (chemical crosslinks) and temporary (entanglements and van der Waals…
Polymer stretching in random smooth flows is investigated within the framework of the FENE dumbbell model. The advecting flow is Gaussian and short-correlated in time. The stationary probability density function of polymer extension is…