C93-8 Title: Chaos in Polymer Phase Transitions

As experimental work progresses, the goal often changes. So it has been with this project. While the underlying motivation for our activities remains an examination of the role that Chaos Theory may play in observed transition behavior of polymers, the focus of our work has shifted in the past few months. We were originally exploring the edges of Chaos for a deeper understanding of the origins of the glass transition. We began by using powerful numerical analysis programs which enabled us to perform a phase space analysis of the traditional non-linear mathematical models of viscoelastic behavior. Chaos was not found in these models. We then looked to applications of traditional thermal analysis instrumentation, with a phase space representation of the raw data. Commercial instruments generally are not easily amenable to this data analysis. With some assistance from contacts at ONR and the Ga Tech Physics departmentl, software was obtained which enabled our analysis to proceed. We are presently finding that these data analysis and presentation tools, which are so powerful in many branches of the physical sciences, are providing us with potentially very rewarding insights into the interplay of polymer tine structure and thermal transition behavior. The potential for a chaotic underpinning to polymer thermal transitions remains elusive, albeit possible.