Stochastic Processes in Polymeric Fluids: Tools and Examples for Developing Simulation Algorithms

A SPECTER is haunting the scientific world-the specter of com puters. All the powers of traditional science have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: puristic theoreticians and tradition alistic experimentalists, editors and referees of prestigious journals, philosophers of science and mathematicians. Where is a pioneering computer simulation that has not been decried as unreliable by its opponents in power? The Computer Manifesto As a result of the enormous progress in computer technology made during the last few decades, computer simulations have become a very powerful and widely applicable tool in science and engineering. The main purpose of this . book is a comprehensive description of the background and possibilities for the application of computer simulation techniques in polymer fluid dynamics. Mod eling and understanding the flow behavior of polymeric liquids on the kinetic theory level is not merely a great intellectual challenge but rather a matter of immense practical importance, for example, in connection with plastics manu facture, processing of foods, and movement of biological fluids. The classical computer simulation technique for static problems in statis tical mechanics is the Monte Carlo method developed in the early 1950s. The name of this method underlines how unusual and strange the idea of using ran dom numbers in the exact sciences is at first glance. However, the Monte Carlo method is a rigorous and efficient means for evaluating moments and static spa tial correlation functions for given probability distributions.