Experimental Study on the Rupture Behavior of the Liquid Bridge between Three Rigid Spheres

The powder process is dynamic at the microscale level. Due to the capillary effect, the viscous attraction of the liquid phase between particles alters the strength and stability of wet granular materials. In this paper, experiments on the rupture behavior of the funicular liquid bridge between three rigid spheres have been presented. The results show that the peak force and rupture distance of the funicular liquid bridges are affected by the size and relative position of the spheres, volume and viscosity of the liquid, and separation rate; the coalescence of the liquid bridges causes a decrease in peak force and an increase in rupture distance, and the rupture distance shows a nonmonotonic functional correlation with the separation rate. Finally, an empirical equation of the correlation between the rupture distance and liquid volume is proposed, whose rationality is verified by comparing it with the results of the existing models.