Wall-anchored semiflexible polymer under large amplitude oscillatory shear flow

Abstract: The properties of semiflexible polymers tethered by one end to an impenetrable wall and exposed to oscillatory shear flow are investigated by mesoscale simulations. A polymer, confined in two dimensions, is described by a linear bead-spring chain, and fluid interactions are incorporated by the Brownian multiparticle collision dynamics approach. At small strains, the polymers follow the applied flow field. However, at high strain, we find a strongly nonlinear response, with major conformational changes. Polymers are stretched along the flow direction and exhibit U-shaped conformations while following the flow. As a consequence of confinement in the half-space, a frequency doubling in the time-dependent polymer properties appears along the direction normal to the wall.