简介: |
Polymer rheology, as a subject aimed to describe the basic physics behind the processing behavior of several hundred million tons of plastic materials (annual global production), is a well established field after decades of investigation by generations of physicists and engineers. Its goal is to provide guiding principles concerning the flow behavior of polymeric materials. Traditionally, polymer rheology is regarded as a part of Chemical Engineering. This presentation discusses recent groundbreaking results from the Polymer Dynamics, Interfaces and Rheology Group (http://www3.uakron.edu/rheology/) at Akron. For the first time after many decades of activities, the subject of polymer viscoelasticity is finally being probed to its core, revealing the critical need to conduct a straightforward flow visualization experiment. For entangled polymers, application of a simple particle tracking velocimetric technique allows one to peek into the black box of polymer rheology and to attest whether the basic premise governing polymer liquid rheology has been ill perceived and whether the entire theoretical framework would collapse in light of the new experimental evidence. Taking entangled polymer solutions as an example, it is shown that a deep scientific revolution is about to take place in this important field of polymer physics. A decade of efforts by the old and new people may be needed to create a new paradigm.
|