Multiscale Modeling and Computation of Liquid Crystal Polymers, Polymer Blends, and Polymer Nanocomposites: Investigation of Rheology and Material Properties

摘要

High-performance polymeric materials such as liquid crystal polymers and polymer nano-particle composites have many military applications. The project aimed to study the mesoscopic structure formation during flow processing and characterization of material properties in solid states. Significant progress has been made to model the materials and to understand their rheological properties in melt or solution processing. Electrical and thermal conduction properties of the nanocomposites are characterized by the low volume fraction asymptotic approach. More anisotropic molecular configuration and their impact to the macroscopic material properties have been investigated. Applications of the models and numerical tools developed for complex fluids are used to important biological applications.