Numerical calculation of london-van der waals adhesion force distributions for different shaped particles

Abstract

A basic method to calculate van der Waals dispersion force distributions for submicron superquadric particles in particle-wall systems is presented. The force distribution is achieved by rotating particles through a large number of arbitrary spatial orientations, each time keeping constant the contact distance to the wall surface while calculating the dispersion force. To accomplish this, the use of 2D particle shape suffices, that is, through using an inter-dimensional function, which has been determined previously. A further development of the method within digital image analysis may lead to possible applications to forecasting the macroscopic properties of particle systems, for example, flowability, agglomeration behavior or dispersibility. For small ranges of superquadric particle shapes, each with a different size, the way from determining the inter-dimensional function up to applying image analysis is shown in an example.