Scaling laws for polymers in dissipative particle dynamics

Abstract

A new technique, dissipative particle dynamics (DPD), appears promising as a means of studying the dynamical behaviour of polymers. Real polymers are known to obey a number of scaling laws, and a simulation method should reproduce these if it is to be relied on. The present work is a study of the properties of polymers, as simulated by DPD. Two cases are of interest: polymers in dilute solution, and polymers in the melt. The polymer in a good solvent shows satisfactory agreement with scaling and Kirkwood theory, and the polymer melt is in excellent agreement with the predictions of Rouse theory.