Molecular model and flow calculation: I. The numerical solutions to multibead-rod models in homogeneous flows

The Galerkin method is used to solve the diffusion equation of the distribution function in configurational space for a multibead-rod model, and the dimensionless components of the extra stress tensor are then calculated by means of the expression of ensemble average. The material functions for steady-state shear flow and uniaxial flow and the mechanical properties of rigid-rodlike molecule suspensions in superposed flows are obtained numerically. The results indicate that it is promising to employ the multibead-rod models without the constitutive equation in numerical simulations of flows of suspensions. The project supported by the National Natural Science Fundation of China.