AbstractThe effect of shear flow on the excluded volume properties of bead spring chains is calculated via the perturbation expansion of the mean‐square end‐to‐end distance with respect to the excluded volume parameterz. The coefficient of the series 〈R2〉/〈R2〉0= 1 +C1·z− … vanishes for large flow rates but shows a strong dependence on the shear rate in the i