On the modeling of quiescent crystallization of polymer melts

In this paper we present a way of modeling crystallization in polymers within the confines of a new general framework that has been developed to describe materials undergoing dissipative processes. Crystallization in polymers is to general an irreversible process, and a characteristic of all such processes Is the production of entropy. In addition to postulating constitutive forms for the internal energy and entropy, we prescribe a constitutive relation for the entropy production. This to turn aids to deriving the crystallization rate equation from the second law, under the constraint that all real processes tend to maximize the rate of entropy production. After developing the general framework, we derive specific models and compare the predictions of the model against experimental data available for quiescent crystallization to the literature. The predictions of the theory compare very well with the available experimental data for nylon-6 obtained by Patel and Spruiell (1).