Rheology of polymer brush under oscillatory shear flow studied by nonequilibrium Monte Carlo simulation.

The rheological behaviors of polymer brush under oscillatory shear flow were investigated by nonequilibrium Monte Carlo simulation. The grafted chain under oscillatory shear flow exhibited a waggling behavior like a flower, and the segments were found to have different oscillatory phases along the chain contour. Stress tensor was further obtained based on the statistics of sampled configuration distribution functions. The simulation reproduced the abrupt increase of the first normal stress difference N₁ with the flow velocity over a critical value, as observed in the experiment of Klein et al. [Nature (London) 352, 143 (1991)]. However, our simulation did not reproduce the brush thickening with shear velocity increased, which was suggested to be responsible for the abrupt increase of N₁ in the above-mentioned paper. This simulation demonstrates that the increase of normal stress might be an inherent behavior of polymer brush due to chain deformation under flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]