Abstract

Polymers and, in particular, polymer composites are known for the enormous adjustability of their mechanical, chemical, and thermal behavior. Multiscale methods are increasingly employed to unravel the polymer microstructure's impact on the material properties. These methods combine the accuracy of particle-based techniques with the efficiency of continuum mechanical approaches. Amorphous polymers pose a special challenge since their microstructure does not continue periodically, and therefore special attention needs to be paid to the particle domain boundary. In this study, we introduce a coupling via an interface between the continuum and the particle domain. Padding atoms as particle representations of the continuum, which serve as interaction partners for the atoms in the particle region, allow for the transfer of displacements and forces between the domains. We present a straightforward 1D example with simple interactions, evaluate the scheme's performance, discuss the resulting energy contributions, and identify an optimal set of coupling parameters. Eventually, this forms the basis for future 3D implementations.

Abstract

Polymers have become increasingly essential to cope with modern engineering challenges. To better understand their microstructure's influence, multi-scale approaches that couple molecular dynamics and continuum mechanics are emerging progressively. However, these simulation techniques require detailed knowledge of the material behavior, which is commonly derived from molecular dynamics simulations. Reducing the degrees of freedom by coarse graining enables the investigation of sufficiently large samples and thus we focus on coarse-grained (CG) polystyrene as a model material. The goal of this contribution is two-fold: Firstly, we identify the minimum sample size necessary to analyze the mechanical properties. Secondly, we quantify the influence of chain length on the material behavior of polystyrene. To this end, we investigate density, end-to-end distance, stress-strain behavior, Young's modulus, and Poisson's ratio. In conclusion, we were able to verify that we can use significantly smaller samples for our investigations without affecting their structure or mechanical behavior. The chain length has a drastic influence on the mechanical properties, with a loss of stiffness in the range of 15 % for very short-chain specimens.