Experiments and engineering models of microparticle impact and deposition

This article summarizes, reviews and consolidates some of the research work done by the authors over recent years. It covers a wide variety of topics related to the experimental and analytical investigations of the impact of microparticles with flat surfaces in the presence of adhesion and frictiona l Forces. Over 180 experiments were conducted under vacuum conditions to st udy the effects of particle size, shape. incident translational and rotatio nal velocities. and substrate surface roughness on the oblique impact respo nse of the particle. Analytical models of the impact process were developed , including an algebraic. rigid-body model and a numerical simulation that can be used to predict rebound and capture conditions and to model the forc es and displacements that occur during the contact duration. These models w ere validated using experimental results. Overall. the article covers impac t conditions ranging from the more idealized case of a microsphere impactin g a molecularly-smooth surface to the more realistic and complex situation of a biological microparticle impacting a typical indoor-room surface.