Monte Carlo Techniques applied to Polymer Deformation

Abstract

The deformation of amorphous polymers at low temperatures (i.e. “glassy polymers”) is generally a non-equilibrium process (see Amorphous Polymers). The picture usually invoked to describe a glassy polymer is that of an entangled network structure trapped in a liquid-like state away from equilibrium. At these temperatures, the rates at which many of the relaxation processes occur in the material are much lower than typically imposed deformation rates¹. Application of techniques such as the Metropolis Monte Carlo method for these types of systems requires special considerations which are briefly discussed in the following sections.