1. Amorphous polymers: assembly of statistical coils

Whether polymers with a regular structure are considered above their softening temperature (or quenched at that temperature and above) or irregular polymers at any temperature, an assembly of disordered chains (statistical coils) generally gives rise to entanglements that contribute to the viscoelasticity of the bulk material.

As a first approximation, if an isolated chain is represented by a Gaussian statistical distribution of monomer units around a barycenter (0) (figures 1 a and b), then a set of chains and their entanglements can be represented in the same way (figures