CALCULATION OF THE INTRINSIC-VISCOSITY FOR DILUTE POLYMER-SOLUTIONS UNDERGOING SHEAR-FLOW

Starting from a set of coupled Langevin equations describing the dynamics of flexible (Gaussian) polymer chains in the presence of hydrodynamic interactions and undergoing a weak shear flow, the stress tensor is determined using Kramers formula. With the aid of renormalization group techniques the steady state intrinsic viscosity is extracted to O(e{open}) (e{open}≡4-d, d being the spatial dimensionality) and to lowest nontrivial order in the flow strength. Within the preaveraging approximation we find a numerically small effect of shear thinning. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.