Recently, several manufacturing applications have arisen that involve the dynamic of response of particulate systems in the presence of strong electromagnetic fields. In many cases, there is significant multifield coupling, which requires methods that can capture the unique and essential physics of these systems. In this presentation, I discuss the modeling and simulation of three such applications:
(1) Electromagnetic composites, with applications motivated by strongly coupled electromagnetic and thermo-mechanical fields that arise in particulate-doped materials from Joule heating, which alter the pointwise dielectric properties such as the electric permittivity, magnetic permeability, and electric conductivity, hence affecting the overall material response.
(2) Charged particulate jet sprays and droplets, with applications motivated by microtechnology (electrostatic copiers, inkjet printers, powder coating machines and a variety of small-scale manufacturing processes), where a successful analysis requires the simulation of flowing particulate media involving simultaneous near-field interaction between charged particles and momentum exchange through thermo-mechanical contact.
(3) Rapid, energy-efficient, sintering of materials comprised of heterogeneous powders, which is of critical importance in emerging technologies where traditional manufacturing processes may be difficult to apply, with specific applications to electrically-aided sintering, which utilizes the material's inherent resistance to flowing current, resulting in Joule-heating to bond the powder components. The process has great promise, since it produces desired materials without much post-processing. Furthermore, it has advantages over other methods, such as high purity of processed materials, in particular since there are few steps during the approach. Additionally, simulation of selective Laser-assisted sintering and ablation is discussed.