This work presents a microscale approach for simulating the dielectrophoresis assembly of polarizable particles under an external electric field. The model is shown to capture interesting dynamical and topological features, such as the formation of chains of particles and their incipient aggregation into hierarchical structures. A quantitative characterization in terms of the number and size of these structures is also discussed. This computational model could represent a viable numerical tool to study the mechanical properties of particle-based hierarchical materials and suggest new strategies for enhancing their design and manufacture.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Progress in mesoscale methods for fluid dynamics simulation’.

这项工作提出了一种微尺度方法，用于模拟外部电场下可极化粒子的介电泳组装。该模型显示出捕捉有趣的动力学和拓扑特征，例如粒子链的形成及其初始聚集成分层结构。还讨论了这些结构的数量和大小的定量表征。该计算模型可以代表一种可行的数值工具，用于研究基于粒子的分层材料的机械性能，并提出增强其设计和制造的新策略。

本文是主题问题“流体动力学模拟中尺度方法的进展”的一部分。