A numerical study on adhesive collision between a micro-sized particle and a wall

Abstract The theoretical study for the wall collision of small adhesive non-spherical particles is challenging due to the irregular shape. In this work we present a new numerical model to study the micro-sized particle-wall collision. The adhesion force is directly incorporated based on the Hamaker theory, which helps to achieve the shape-independence. The simulation not only agrees well with the JKR model for spherical cases but also naturally reproduces the adhesion-related phenomena such as the “jump-on” and “pull-off” events. Besides, the viscoelasticity is closely related to the local strain and strain rate. The results show that the restitution coefficient curves obtained by the simulation agree well with the classic experimental data over a wide range of incident velocity, particle size and material properties. Owing to the complete shape-independence of the sub-particle models, the present FEM model has the full capability to extend to the wall collision of complex-shaped non-spherical adhesive particles.