Concentration-tuned interactions and structures in flowing suspensions under a gradient AC electric field

Abstract

In this study, numerical simulations of suspensions of Al2O3 particles in corn oil at various volume fractions were performed to explore the mechanisms involved in the electro-mechanical behavior of positive polarized particles suspended in an insulated suspending medium traveling through a rotating flow channel while exposed to a nonuniform AC electric field. A theoretical model was developed to simulate the trajectories of individual particles under the action of dielectrophoretic (DEP), dipole-dipole interparticle, viscous, and gravitational forces in a laminar flow. The results demonstrated that particles began to aggregate along the edges of electrodes with electric field application. New particles coming from more distant regions then gradually joined the vertices of particle aggregates, leading to the growth of chain-like clusters along the electric field gradient. Predictions showed good agreement with the results observed in a previous experiment. The new findings of this study are that the DEP force always tends to confine particles near the electrode edges, whereas the clustering of particles on the electrodes arises from the competition between particle interaction due to the DEP force and the long-range dipole-dipole interparticle interaction with neighboring particles. This process became more apparent with higher volume fractions of particle.