A study of conformation-dependent friction in a dumbbell model for dilute solutions

We consider predictions of rheological behavior in a variety of shear and extensional flows for an elastic dumbbell model with a nonlinear spring, and conformation-dependent hydrodynamic properties. The latter include a conformation-dependent anisotropic bead friction coefficient, and a related conformation-dependent degree of inefficiency for rotation in straining flows. With these features, the dumbbell exhibits hydrodynamic behavior consistent with a particle of finite axis ratio over the complete set of possible polymer conformations, from random-coil to a fully extended thread-like configuration. The predicted rheological behavior in shear flow is improved, relative to data, by the inclusion of anisotropy and strain-inefficiency in the frictional properties of the model, while other desirable features such as the sudden onset of fully extended states at a critical value of the velocity gradient, the presence of a hysteresis-loop in end-to-end dimension as a function of the velocity gradient, and the correlation of end-to-end distance (or birefringence) with the eigenvalue of the velocity gradient tensor for a wide variety of two-dimensional flows, are maintained.