Slip-link modeling of a crystallizing entangled polymer melt

Modeling of polymer processing is a subject of continuing industrial and theoretical interest. Many industrial polymer melts are entangled and undergo crystallization during processing. Experimental data for the rheology of crystallizing entangled polymers are available in a number of published studies on this topic. In particular, the ``inverse quench'' technique allows one to stop crystallization in effect, and to measure the dynamic modulus over a wide range of frequencies. Meanwhile, over the past few years, slip-link models have been demonstrated to be very capable for describing the rheology of entangled melts. In this work, we present a modification of the slip-link model to capture the rheology of an entangled melt during the early stages of crystallization. The model captures the emergence of a secondary, low-frequency plateau observed in the linear regime. The advantage of this approach is the capability to predict the effect of on-going crystallization during non-linear deformation.