Implementing van der Waals forces for polytope DEM particles

Abstract Clay minerals are non-spherical nano-particles interacting through ranged van der Waals forces. Discrete Element Simulations usually use coarse numerical integration based on sphere clusters, as available analytical formalisms are limited. In this paper, we discuss the numerical implementation of a van der Waals force for cuboid particles derived in previous research. In particular, we describe some of the corrections necessary for its extension to pairs of finite-sized particles.