Plastic and metal spheres were dropped from various heights onto a quartz disk covered with a thin layer of viscous oil and inclined at various angles with the horizontal. Rebound was observed only above a critical approach velocity, similar to that observed for head-on collisions when the disk is horizontal. The tangential component of the sphere's velocity is reduced only a small amount by the collision, owing to sliding lubrication/friction forces that also impart a small rotational velocity to the sphere. In contrast, the normal component of velocity is reduced substantially by viscous losses, and so the rebound angle of the sphere relative to the surface of the disk is smaller than the impact angle. The normal component of restitution and the rebound angle increase with the normal Stokes number based on the normal component of the impact velocity.

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Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to determine the agglomeration rates of wet grains (particles coated with a viscous, liquid layer) engaged in simple shear flow under dilute conditions. In this work, a closed-form model derived from the elastohydrodynamic theory describes the normal restitution coefficient for binary collisions. Unlike previous MD studies, the particle deformation is not assumed to depend on a particle “overlap” (penetration), but instead depends on the formal coupling of Hertzian deformation theory with lubrication theory. The initial rate of doublet formation is studied as a function of system properties and the energy input to the system. In addition to the system properties, the distribution of relative velocities in the system is found to be a key factor influencing the initial rates of clustering. A theory based on estimating the collision frequency and the critical velocity below which no rebound is observed—due to viscous dissipation—is found to provide a good approximation of the initial aggregation rate. The rate of aggregation is found to increase with increasing number of particles in the system, increasing solid fraction, decreasing overall Stokes number, and decreasing compliance parameter.

Previous studies on wetted, particle-particle collisions have been limited to head-on collisions, but in many-particle flows, collisions are inherently oblique. In this work, we explore such oblique collisions experimentally and theoretically. Whereas in normal collisions particles rebound only due to solid deformation, we observe in oblique collisions a new outcome where the particles initially form a rotating doublet and then deagglomerate at a later time due to so-called centrifugal forces. Surprisingly, we discover the essential role of capillary forces in oblique collisions even when the capillary number (viscous over capillary forces) is high. This recognition leads to the introduction of a dimensionless number, the centrifugal number (centrifugal over capillary forces), which together with the previously established Stokes number characterizes the regime map of outcomes. Unexpectedly, we observe a normal restitution coefficient greater than unity at large impact angles, the mechanism for which may also be observed in other agglomerating systems.

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