Entanglements fade, packing emerges: How polymer melts behave under strong extension

Entanglements fade, packing emerges: How polymer melts behave under strong extension | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Entanglements fade, packing emerges: How polymer melts behave under strong extension Zhe Wang, Yin Wang, Lin-Feng Wu, Yi-Bo Shao This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9410980/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The tube model, which reduces the interaction of many-chain entanglement to a single-chain picture, has enabled quantitative descriptions of the mechanical behaviors of polymeric materials and underpins applications from polymer processing to life sciences. In strong extensional flows, however, this theory systematically fails. Herein, through molecular dynamics simulations of entangled polymers, we reveal a strain-induced crossover from the entangled state to a packed state in the inter-chain configuration. Following the saturation of primitive chain stretch, convective disentanglement and chain alignment reorganize the system into a packed configuration of aligned segments. This crossover fundamentally alters the origin of the stress in nonlinear extensional flows, which explains the breakdown of the tube model under such conditions, and leads to a quantitative prediction to the mechanical response at large extensional strains. These findings clearly show how the collective inter-chain reorganization governs the nonlinear extensional behaviors. Physical sciences/Physics/Statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics Physical sciences/Materials science/Theory and computation Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9410980","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":626101966,"identity":"26a82aa5-a68c-47e7-a93e-48a11861971c","order_by":0,"name":"Zhe Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4103-0751","institution":"Tsinghua University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Zhe","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":626101967,"identity":"42df6c43-6778-44e3-b8d6-2445cbe4061a","order_by":1,"name":"Yin Wang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tsinghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yin","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":626101968,"identity":"ff7d11ea-01d3-42cc-b905-d7077a1a7dc1","order_by":2,"name":"Lin-Feng Wu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tsinghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Lin-Feng","middleName":"","lastName":"Wu","suffix":""},{"id":626101969,"identity":"703f95ba-2153-4476-af1c-d88c07732430","order_by":3,"name":"Yi-Bo Shao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tsinghua University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yi-Bo","middleName":"","lastName":"Shao","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-04-14 05:56:07","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9410980/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9410980/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":107489968,"identity":"a87ebc07-0198-448d-8415-13a6021ed7f4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-22 02:49:25","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":8992544,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"snarticle0414.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9410980/v1_covered_46c65c35-d88b-4dcb-b26b-290f4b5805c2.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Entanglements fade, packing emerges: How polymer melts behave under strong extension","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9410980/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9410980/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The tube model, which reduces the interaction of many-chain entanglement to a single-chain picture, has enabled quantitative descriptions of the mechanical behaviors of polymeric materials and underpins applications from polymer processing to life sciences. 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