Image taken from: Mechanics of random fiber networks—a review, Soft Matter, 2011.
Rheology for Entangled Polymers: Toolkit for Analysis of Theory and Experiment.
Reptate is a software package developed as part of the Microscale Polymer Processing project with collaborators from the University of Leeds and the University of Reading. The main authors of the software were Jorge Ramierez and Alexi Likhtman. Reptate was highlighted by Tom McLeish in a recent talk at the Physical Aspects of Polymer Science conference, as a wonderful tool for those studying the rheological behaviour of polymers.
Reptate provides a platform where experimental rheological data can be easily compared to theoretical predictions for the behaviour of entangled polymers. The software includes both classical and current theories of polymer dynamics. As well as a tool for understanding experimental data, Reptate could be used to design polymers for specific applications; the properties are chosen, the polymer architecture inferred and the polymer designed. Reptate is available online at reptate.com and is provided for free. More information can be found here.
Recent papers on understanding entangled polymer behaviour:
Linking models of polymerisation and dynamics to predict branched polymer structure and flow, Science (2011).
Counting polymer knots to find the entanglement length, Soft Matter (2011).
Microscopic origin of the terminal relaxation time in polymer nanocomposites: an experimental precedent, Soft Matter (2011).
