Streaming birefringence. VII. Influence of the intermolecular hydrodynamic interaction on the viscosity and streaming birefringence of polymer solutions

The cavity model used in the theory of dielectrics was applied to hydrodynamics to calculate the force exerted by a system of soft dumbbells on a reference dumbbell in a hydrodynamic field. The influence of this force on the viscosity and flow birefringence and its dependence on both the concentration and velocity gradient were calculated. The system of equations has a real solution only for values of β = Mη]η₀γ/RT which are smaller than a critical value rapidly decreasing with increasing concentration. At zero concentration the results obtained agree with the theory of a single isolated dumbbell model. The calculated Huggins constant is k′ = 0.4. The extinction angle is connected with the relative viscosity very nearly as derived from experiments. However, the theory fails at higher concentrations and gradients yielding an increase in viscosity with the gradient and infinite zero-shear viscosity for the concentration c = 2.5/η].