The origin of the interparticle potential of electrorheological fluids

The particles of electrorheological fluids can be modelled as dielectric spheres(DS)immersed in a continuum dielectric. When an external field is applied, polarization charges are induced on the surfaces of the spheres and can be represented as point dipoles placed in the centres of the spheres. When the DSs are close to each other, the induced charged is tributions are distorted by the elect ricfic field of the neighbouring DSs. This is the origin of the interaction potential between the DSs. The calculation of this energy is very time consuming, therefore, the DS model can not be used in molecular simulations. In this paper, we show that the interaction between the point dipoles appropriately approximates the interaction of DSs. The polarizable point dipole model provides better results, but this model is not pair-wiseadditive, so it is not that practical in particle simulations