ABSTRACT
In terms of particle technology, powder processing and handling, the consolidation and non-rapid flow of dry, ultrafine and cohesive powders (particle diameter d < 10 µm) can be explained by the load-history dependent adhesion forces at particle contacts. Here we intend to focus on a characteristic soft contact of two isotropic, stiff, linear elastic, smooth, spherical particles. Thus, the soft or compliant contact displacement is assumed to be small (hK /d << 1) compared to the diameter of the stiff particles. The contact area consists of a representative number of molecules. Hence, continuum approaches are only used here to describe the force-displacement behavior in terms of nanomechanics. The microscopic particle shape remains invariant during the dynamic stressing and contact deformation at this nanoscale. In powder processing, these particles are manufactured from uniform material in the bulk phase. These prerequisites are assumed to be suitable for the mechanics of dry particle contacts in many cases of industrial practice.
