Smoothed dissipative particle dynamics model for polymer molecules in suspension

We present a model for a polymer molecule in solution based on smoothed dissipative particle dynamics (SDPD). This method is a thermodynamically consistent version of smoothed particle hydrodynamics able to discretize the Navier-Stokes equations and, at the same time, to incorporate thermal fluctuations according to the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Within the framework of the method developed for mesoscopic multiphase flows by Hu and Adams, we introduce additional finitely extendable nonlinear elastic interactions between particles that represent the beads of a polymer chain. In order to assess the accuracy of the technique, we analyze the static and dynamic conformational properties of the modeled polymer molecule in solution. Extensive tests of the method for the two-dimensional (2D) case are performed, showing good agreement with the analytical theory. Finally, the effect of confinement on the conformational properties of the polymer molecule is investigated by considering a 2D microchannel with gap H varying between 1 and 10 μm, of the same order as the polymer gyration radius. Several SDPD simulations are performed for different chain lengths corresponding to N=20-100 beads, giving a universal behavior of the gyration radius RG and polymer stretch X as functions of the channel gap when normalized properly.