An extended FENE dumbbell theory for concentration dependent shear-induced anisotropy in dilute polymer solutions

The original FENE dumbell kinetic theory is extended to describe concentration dependent shear-induced anisotropy in dilute polymer solutions. A mean-field term is introduced into the model equations to take into account intermolecular forces. For the case of stationary shear flow the corresponding coupled non-linear relaxation equations for the components of the tensor of gyration are solved numerically. We present results for the shear and concentration dependence of different quantities related to the tensor, i.e. the orientation angle, radius of gyration, the eigenvalues, and different pseudospherical components. They are in good qualitative agreement with data from light-scattering experiments. Corresponding results for the rheological quantities are briefly discussed.