Agglomerate breakage and adhesion upon impact with complex-shaped particles

Journal article, 2019

Understanding the breakage and adhesion of an agglomerate upon collision with a target particle is a primary step to fathom the adhesive mixing process. While the effect of several variables, such as collision velocity and particle interface energy, on collision behavior has been explored, the effects of target particle morphology have yet to be revealed. In this work, we generate three-dimensional particles with controllable shape and texture using Fourier harmonics and, using the discrete element method, we examine the collision of an agglomerate that impacts each target particle. Results show that the agglomerate breakage depends on the local curvature in the impact zone. We observe that the asperity and elongation factors of the target particle largely contribute to the extent of the deposition of fine particles and the size and number of generated fragments after impact, respectively. These results reveal the large potential error when approximating real particles as smooth spheres in fragmentation studies.