Finitely extensible bead spring chains in time-dependent shear flows

The configurational and rheological properties of bead spring chains in time-dependent shear flows are calculated. The finite extensibility is incorporated through the constraint of constant contour length of the chain. Start-up of shear flow yields a stress overshoot, whereas oscillatory shear flow yields the same frequency dependence of the dynamic moduli as the simple bead spring model. The results show that finite extensibility can lead to non-linear rheological behavior of dilute polymer solutions. The influence of preaveraged hydrodynamic interaction on the obtained results is discussed.