ENERGY ACCOMMODATION IN COLLISIONS OF SMALL PARTICLES

When very small solid particles collide an energy accommodation mechanism apparently functions converting collisional energy into internal energy thus allowing the particles to stick together. The authors study the accommodation by computer simulation of collisions between solid microparticles containing the order of 100 atoms. In the simulations the particles invariably stick together indicating complete accommodation. The accommodation occurs because the particle collision force is dominated by individual atom-atom collisions. This accommodation mechanism is universal because it requires only that the atoms composing the particles have a hard core: a property all atoms have to a sufficient degree.