| Abstract: | When two shear deformations γ1 and γ2 are successively applied to an entangled polymeric system, a composite temporary network is formed. In this article a simple method is proposed for evaluating separately the contributions from the component networks of different deformations, γ1 + γ2 and γ2, to the observed shear and normal stresses. The method is applied to literature data for a polystyrene solution. It is revealed that the entangled chain segments formed between the applications of two deformations relax very rapidly, while those formed prior to the first deformation do not relax for quite a long time. The result is in accord with the conjecture based on the tube model of entanglement that the chain ends lose their orientation as the chain creeps out of an oriented tube. |
