From polymer dynamics to polymer processing: bridging physics and engineering

ABSTRACT: 

               The fundamental question of how long chain flexible macromolecules undergo Brownian motions in a dense state has been investigated for the past four decades. Key physical insights were first provided by Sir Sam Edwards1 and Pierre de Gennes2 in two seminal papers in this area. From thereon, theoretical understanding of this problem has grown steadily thanks to significant contributions of several physicists. In particular, a lot more is now understood about the influence of macromolecular structure and flow kinematics on the dynamics of polymers. Simultaneous advances in polymer chemistry have resulted in the preparation of model polymers that allow comparison between theoretical predictions and experimental data. At the same time, engineers have developed sophisticated numerical algorithms to simulate the flow of fluids in complex geometries that are relevant to industrial polymer processing operations. Therefore, it has now become possible to translate the knowledge of polymer dynamics to industrial processes. This opens a window of opportunity for tailoring the structure of polymers to best suit a given industrial process. This is particularly useful for manufacturing new types of polymers such as biodegradable polymers and their products. In this lecture I shall review the field and show glimpses of contributions from my group.

1.  Edwards, S. H. (1967). Proc. Phys. Soc. 92: 9.
2.  De Gennes, P. G. (1971) The Journal of Chemical Physics 55 (2): 572–571

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

               Dr. Ashish Lele is scientist at the National Chemical Laboratory, NCL, Pune. He has a B.Tech. from UICT (1988) and Ph.D. from University of Delaware (1993). Lele's research interests are in the area of rheology of complex fluids such as polymer solutions and melts, microphase separated systems and food products, molecular dynamics of entangled polymers, CFD of viscoelastic, non-Newtonian fluids, development of rhelogical tools to study microstructure evolution during flow etc. He has several publications and patents in these areas. He has won several awards, prominent amongst them being the Shantiswaroop Bhatnagar award, 2006, INSA Young Scientist Award in Engineering Sciences, 1998, CSIR Young Scientist Award in Engineering, 1996, and the RL Pigford Best TA award, 1992. He was recently awarded the Infosys Prize for Engineering and Computer Science for his incisive contributions in molecular tailoring of stimuli responsive smart polymeric gels, exploring the anomalous behaviour of rheologically complex fluids, and for building the bridge between macromolecular dynamics and polymer processing.