Eur. Phys. J. E (2007) 23: 3-5
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2007-10182-7

Regular Article

Melt fracture of entangled polymers*

Institut Curie, Centre de Recherche, 26, rue d’Ulm, 75005, Paris, France

Received: 12 January 2007
Accepted: 16 May 2007
Published online: 4 June 2007

Abstract

We construct a model for a slippage plane in a sheared melt, based on a balance between reptation bridging and shear debonding. The resulting state could show up at rather low shear rates and be locally stable. But it is not easy to nucleate: the conventional entangled state is also locally stable. We propose that slippage occurs on solid walls: either at the container surface, or on dust particles floating in the melt. Slippage at solid/melt interfaces was studied (experimentally and theoretically) long ago. There is a critical stress σ* for slippage: our estimate (for strong adsorption of melt chains on the solid) gives ˜* ˜ 1/3 (plateau modulus) for typical cases. Thus, melt fracture is expected at moderate stresses, in agreement with observations by S.Q. Wang and coworkers.