RELAXATION PROPERTIES OF THE ROUSE CHAIN WITH INHOMOGENEOUS LINKS

T. F. Irzhak, L. I. Kuzub, and V. I. Irzhak

UDC 541.64:542.952

The relaxation properties of the Rouse chain with inhomogeneous 
links have been investigated. The problem has been solved by direct 
integration of systems of differential-difference equations which 
describe the relaxations of the chain length and stress. It has been 
shown that these two processes are different in both the set of relaxation 
modes and the characteristic of the spectrum. The influence of the 
chain structure on these parameters has been demonstrated. The effect 
of "packing" of the relaxation modes has been revealed; it appears 
on introduction of links with an increased coefficient of friction 
into the chain and manifests itself in the fact that the high-frequency 
modes come closer together and even merge, so that their total number 
becomes substantially smaller than that in the case of the Rouse model.

Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy 
of Sciences, Chernogolovka, Russia; email: irzhak@icp.ru. Translated 
from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 76, No. 3, pp. 116-123, 
May-June, 2003. Original article submitted September 6, 2002.