Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, Vol.102, No.2, 397-408, 2002
A suspension model for low shear rate polymer solidification
The events during solidification of flowing polymers are extremely complex, often involving partial crystallization. Many processes may need consideration of viscoelastic effects, but here we present an elementary viscous model of solidification rheology based on suspension theory, with application to some recent slow-shearing experiments. It is shown that neither a simple dependence of crystallinity on shear rate nor total shear describes the results, but that a scaling law is evident.