• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.805-815
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• 2015

The present study numerically investigated two-dimensional dielectrophoretic motions of a pair of particles suspended freely in a viscous fluid, interacting with a nearby nonconducting planar wall, under an external uniform electric field. The results show that the motions depend strongly on the set of two electric conductivity signs and the particles-wall separation gap. When both particles have the same sign, they revolve and finally align parallel to the electric field. In contrast, with different signs, they revolve in the opposite direction and finally align perpendicular to the field. Simultaneously, they are repelled to move farther away from the wall regardless of their conductivity set. With further separation from the wall, the particles-wall interaction effect diminishes and tthe particle-particle effect dominates.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.425-433
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• 2015

In this paper, we have numerically investigated two-dimensional dielectrophoretic (DEP) motions of a single particle suspended freely in a viscous fluid, interacting with a nearby nonconducting planar wall, under an externally applied uniform direct-current electric field. Particularly, we solve the Maxwell equation with a large sharp jump in the electric conductivity at the particle-fluid interface and then integrate the Maxwell stress tensor to compute the DEP force on the particle. Results show that, under an electric field parallel to the wall, one particle is always repelled to move far away from the wall and the motion depends strongly on the particle-wall spacing and the particle conductivity. The motion strength vanishes when the particle is as conductive as the fluid and increases as the conductivity deviates further from that of the fluid.