Tailored electromagnetic force fields offer the possibility of forming structures having diverse geometries at various length scales from loose particles. The analogy of the responses of a neutral particle placed in an acoustic or electromagnetic field pointed to the existence of a unified governing force field expression. This was shown to be based on a dipole model of the particle in each field as long as the particle diameter was one order of magnitude smaller than the wavelength. In this Rayleigh regime we developed scaling laws to extend the theory to larger particles and lower frequencies. Force predictions on a single particle in a microwave field were experimentally validated. In this paper, secondary forces due to particle‐particle interaction are shown to become significant at short ranges. By invoking the dipole model we are able to predict the particle‐particle interaction in both fields and show the similarities and differences. Differences are found in the force profile of secondary forces between acoustic and electromagnetic fields and are a result of the mechanism inducing the dipoles themselves. The resulting differences in shaping structures show that complete surfaces form in acoustic fields while chains will form in electromagnetic fields — adding one degree of control over the shape formation process. In electromagnetic fields, walls or other surfaces can be formed from these chains. Thus the force field tailoring problem is reduced to one represented by well‐known equations and solutions techniques both primary and secondary forces. Finite element solutions are used to derive interesting field patterns to illustrate the diversity in shapes possible. A 3‐dimensional time‐stepping calculation is being developed to study the entire shaping process.
Particle‐Particle Interaction in Electromagnetic Fields for Force‐Field Tailoring
SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL FORUM-STAIF 2007: 11th Conf Thermophys.Applic.in Micrograv.; 24th Symp Space Nucl.Pwr.Propulsion; 5th Conf Hum/Robotic Techn & Vision Space Explor.; 5th Symp Space Coloniz.; 4th Symp New Frontrs & Future Con ; 2007 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 880 , 1 ; 177-184
2007-01-30
8 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English