Numerical Modeling of Electrodynamic Aggregation of Magnetized Nanodust

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical simulation of how magnetized nanodust particles aggregate under electrodynamic forces, revealing filament formation, conductivity percolation, and fractal structuring.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive parallel code for modeling the dynamic aggregation and electrical evolution of magnetized nanodust systems.

Findings

Formation of stable filaments from randomly oriented nanodust

Percolation of electric conductivity in filament networks

Development of fractal-like skeletal structures

Abstract

The recent results of applying the parallel numerical code SELFAS-3 to modelling of electrodynamic aggregation of magnetized nanodust are presented. The modelling describes evolution of a many-body system of basic blocks which are taken as strongly magnetized thin rods (i.e., one-dimensional static magnetic dipoles), with electric conductivity and static electric charge, screened with its own plasma sheath. The code provides continuous modelling of the following stages of evolution: (i) alignments of randomly situated solitary basic blocks in an external magnetic field and formation of stable filaments, (ii) percolation of electric conductivity in a random filamentary system, and electric short-circuiting in the presence of an external electric field, (iii) evolution of electric current profile in a filamentary network with a trend towards a fractal skeletal structuring.