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CPP: Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 8: SYMPOSIUM Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Soft-Condensed Matter

CPP 8.9: Talk

Tuesday, March 28, 2006, 16:15–16:30, ZEU Lich

Unfolding of a globular polymer in shear flow — •Alfredo Alexander-Katz and Roland R. Netz — Physik Department, Tech. Univ. Muenchen, James-Frank Str., D-85748, Garching, Deutschland

In the process of clotting in small vessels, platelets form a plug in an injured zone only in the presence of a protein known as the von Willebrand Factor (vWF). The absence or malfunction of the vWF leads to a bleeding disorder, the so-called von Willebrand disease. It is believed that the protein is globular when released into the blood flow. In this talk, we present a study of a simple model of vWF in shear flow. Using hydrodynamic simulations, we show that a globular polymer undergoes globule-stretch transitions above a critical shear rate. Finally, we discuss the scaling of the critical shear rate with the length of the polymer, and compare it to the physiological values attainable in the body.