LVE Tutorial

Likhtman-McLeish theory

  1. Start RepTate and create a new LVE Application logo:

    New application
  2. Drag and drop a file(s) with a .tts extension, e.g. the set of PI_**k_T-35.tts files in the data/PI_LINEAR/ folder, with molecular weight from “13.5k” to “1131k”. See Data Files for a description of the data file organization.

    Load data
  3. Select a theory, e.g. “Likthman-McLeish” theory, and press einstein to create it (calculation is done with default parameter values). Press “Minimize Error” fit.

    New theory
  4. To save the theory line(s), click the th_save button.

BOB LVE predictions

BOB LVE uses a “polyconf” file, which contains information on the polymer architectures. The “polyconf” files must carry a .dat. They can be generated by theories in the React application in RepTate or by BOB software (Chinmay Das and Daniel Read) outside RepTate (https://sourceforge.net/projects/bob-rheology/files/bob-rheology/).

  1. Start RepTate and create a new LVE Application logo:

    New application
  2. Drag and drop a file with a .tts extension (see Data Files) OR add a dummy file if you do not have data corresponding to the “polyconf” file by clicking dummy, which brings the following dialog.

    new files

    Note

    The xrange of BOB predictions will correspond exactly to the xrange of the (dummy) file.

  3. Select BOB theory, theory_bob, and press einstein to create it. Then press “Calculate” calculate. The following dialog appears, where, from top to bottom, we can select:

    • the “polyconf” file (with a .dat extension)

    • the maximum number of polymers

    • the maximum total number of arms (segments attached to a branch point)

    • alpha: the tube dilatation exponent

    • M0: the molar mass of a monomer

    • Ne: the number of monomers in an entanglement segment

    • the mass density of the polymer

    • the entanglement relaxation time

    • the temperature

    BOB_dialog

    Hint

    Click the “Help” button to show the original documentation of BOB v2.3 by Chinmay Das.

  4. Click “OK” to launch the calculations of the linear rheology. In the theory text-box, you will find informations related to BOB simulation parameters and to the topology of the polymers found in the “polyconf” file.