Surface Forces and Their Application to Particle Deposition and Resuspension

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an introduction to surface forces and to highlight their role in the context of particle deposition and resuspension. For that purpose, surface forces are first presented with a specific emphasis on the DLVO theory, which combines both van der Waals and electrostatic double-layer contributions within a single theory. The limitations and possible extensions of the DLVO theory are also briefly outlined, especially the role played by surface properties (such as surface roughness or surface charge heterogeneities). Then, the impact of such surface forces on particle deposition and resuspension is analysed with a brief review of some experimental results. Besides, the development of modelling approaches including the coupling and resulting effects of these various phenomena/mechanisms (with very different spatial- and time-scales) is illustrated with a thorough description of a one-point PDF modelling approach together with corresponding numerical results.