Adhesive Loose Packings of Small Particles

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We explore adhesive loose packings of dry small spherical particles of micrometer size using 3D discrete-element simulations with adhesive contact mechanics. A dimensionless adhesion parameter (Ad) successfully combines the effects of particle velocities, sizes and the work of adhesion, identifying a universal regime of adhesive packings for Ad>1. The structural properties of the packings in this regime are well described by an ensemble approach based on a coarse-grained volume function that includes correlations between bulk and contact spheres. Our theoretical and numerical results predict: (i) An equation of state for adhesive loose packings that appears as a continuation from the frictionless random close packing (RCP) point in the jamming phase diagram; (ii) The existence of a maximal loose packing point at the coordination number Z=2 and packing fraction ϕ=1/2³. Our results highlight that adhesion leads to a universal packing regime at packing fractions much smaller than the random loose packing, which can be described within a statistical mechanical framework. We present a general phase diagram of jammed matter comprising frictionless, frictional, adhesive as well as non-spherical particles, providing a classification of packings in terms of their continuation from the spherical frictionless RCP.