Collision dynamics of granular particles with adhesion

We investigate the collision of adhesive viscoelastic spheres in quasistatic approximation where the adhesive interaction is described by the Johnson, Kendall, and Roberts (JKR) theory. The collision dynamics, based on the dynamic contact force, describes both restitutive collisions quantified by the coefficient of restitution as well as aggregative collisions, characterized by the critical aggregative impact velocity g[subscript cr]. Both quantities and g[subscript cr] depend sensitively on the impact velocity and particle size. Our results agree well with laboratory experiments.