Abstract
Damping behavior is investigated for five types of high density polyethylene (HDPE) samples with broader molecular weight distributions. The melt of moderately entangled HDPE shows a weaker damping than the Doi-Edwards (DE) prediction, maybe due to a broader molecular weight distribution. On the other hand, the highly entangled HDPE melts with broader molecular weight distributions show stronger damping than the DE prediction, as in the case of highly entangled systems with narrow molecular weight distributions. The strong damping in the former case appears different in origin from the latter.
