Simulation of Dielectrophoretic Motion of Microparticles Using a Molecular Dynamics Approach

We model and simulate dielectrophoresis of micro-scale particles using the finite element method. A soft sphere system molecular dynamics model is presented, which solves a set of equations for the motion of every particle. The model couples most of the significant forces, i.e. the dielectrophoresis (DEP) forces, the particle-particle electrostatic forces, particle-particle interfacial repulsive forces, particle-wall repulsive forces and the hydrodynamic forces in Stokes flow. Since the system of equations is stiff, an implicit scheme is used. To obtain the particle trajectories, a constant time-step is applied. We present some numerical tests computing hydrodynamic force, electrostatic force and DEP force using our model, including simulated trapping of particles in a micro channel by dielectrophoresis. The results are in agreement with the theories and the experimental observations.