General Applicability of the Coupling Model to Viscoelasticity of Polymers : from Local Segmental Motion to Terminal Flow

Abstract
We survey the important problems in polymer viscoelasticity that impede progress in this field. These problems manifest themselves as spectacular anomalies in the viscoelastic data that have been reproduced in different polymers and in different laboratories, but have largely been put aside for lack of explanation. Without solving these difficult problems, there can be no satisfactory understanding of the viscoelastic properties of polymers spanning across the local segmental motion, the glass-rubber softening dispersion, the rubbery plateau and the terminal dispersion. The coupling model, which has general applicablity to various relaxation mechanisms of polymers and beyond polymers, is able to resolve all these problems.