ABSTRACT
Microscopic models of giant micelles under flow generally treat the micelles as structureless, flexible, polymer-like objects, albeit ones whose individual identities are not sustained indefinitely over time. This neglect of chemical detail follows a very successful precedent set in the field of polymer dynamics. This chapter explains the kinetic question of how micelles exchange material with one another in equilibrium. While the general case of branched micelles is complicated, things simplify considerably in the branching-dominated limit, when there are many branch points per end-cap. A key ingredient into rheological modeling is the presence of reversible aggregation and disaggregation processes, allowing micelles to exchange material. A crucial theoretical idea is that micellar branch points are labile; they are always free to slide along the length of a micelle. The chapter discusses microscopic constitutive modeling, which aims to predict rheology from an understanding of the microscopic dynamics of giant micelles.
