Impact of surface roughness on particle resuspension

• Main Author: Kong, Shin Tyan.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/50084
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The centrifugal technique was used to investigate the influence of particle size, substrate surface roughness (aluminum, stainless steel, high-end resilient flooring, laminate flooring and white Plexiglas acrylic), and applied centrifuging speed on particle-surface adhesion force. The mono-sized particles with mean diameter 2 μm, 10 μm and 20 μm and density of 1050kg/m3 were used as adhesives. The adhesion force was measured in a refrigerated centrifuge, which had a drum rotor containing specially designed adapters, and a maximum rotational speed of 13000 rpm. Significant changes in adhesion strength have been observed for particles with different sizes and substrate surface roughness. For particles less than 50 μm, only the Van der Waals force and capillary force were considered in this study. The adhesion force increased with particle size and decreased with the increases of substrate surface roughness. The white Plexiglas acrylic substrate showed a higher adherence than other materials, due to its finer surface finished. The agglomeration of smaller particles resulted in larger particle-surface contact area, which the behavior exhibited by larger particles that have higher adhesion force.