(398j) Contact Force Measurement for Liquid-Solid Systems At Different Liquid Saturation States

Solid-liquid interactions in the processing of solid particles is of great importance to applications from particle drying to powder granulation. Cohesive and viscous forces that result from the formation of liquid bridges between wet particles can greatly alter the behavior and flow of an otherwise identical dry system. While the effect of pendular bridges in particles systems has been an area of active study, resulting in research on methods to induce separation or mixing, the effect of different (higher) levels of liquid saturation have received dramatically less attention. This work explores the liquid-solid interaction forces of a simple system using one particle type and one fluid. A stationary container of a small number of particles (from 2-4) is filled with different volumes of liquid corresponding to different saturation levels (funicular, pendular, capillary, droplet). A particle is then forced into contact with the system creating a solid-liquid interface. The liquid-induced forces are measured at the solid-liquid boundary. These results will be compared to existing theoretical/modeling predictions.