Higher order hydrodynamic interactions in the calculation of polymer transport properties

Higher order hydrodynamics interactions are short‐range modifications to the Oseen tensor T ij and its self‐interaction counterpart T ii . They differ from the Oseen tensor in having terms of higher order than the first in a / R , a being a bead radius and R being a bead‐bead distance. Effects of higher order hydrodynamic interactions on whole chain–whole chain hydrodynamic interactions are here computed. Higher order hydrodynamic interactions are shown to lead to a concentration dependence of the diffusion and friction coefficients of a free monomer. However, while higher order interactions make contributions of the same nature to the drag coefficients of a monomer and of a whole chain, the contributions are not simply multiplicative, removing a justification for the common practice of correcting polymer solution transport data for “monomer friction effects” via a normalization with data on friction coefficients of free monomers.