Fouling in gas turbines is caused by airborne contaminants which, under certain conditions, adhere to aerodynamic
surfaces upon impact. The growth of solid deposits causes geometric modifications of the blades in terms of both
mean shape and roughness level. The consequences of particle deposition range from performance deterioration to
life reduction to complete loss of power. Due to the importance of the phenomenon, several methods to model particle
sticking have been proposed in literature. Most models are based on the idea of a sticking probability, defined as the
likelihood a particle has to stick to a surface upon impact. Other models investigate the phenomenon from a
deterministic point of view by calculating the energy available before and after the impact. The nature of the materials
encountered within this environment does not lend itself to a very precise characterization, consequently, it is difficult
to establish the limits of validity of sticking models based on field data or even laboratory scale experiments. As a
result, predicting the growth of solid deposits in gas turbines is still a task fraught with difficulty. In this work, two nondimensional
parameters are defined to describe the interaction between incident particles and a substrate, with
particular reference to sticking behavior in a gas turbine. In the first part of the work, historical experimental data on
particle adhesion under gas turbine-like conditions are analyzed by means of relevant dimensional quantities (e.g.
particle viscosity, surface tension, and kinetic energy). After a dimensional analysis, the data then are classified using
non-dimensional groups and a universal threshold for the transition from erosion to deposition and from fragmentation
to splashing based on particle properties and impact conditions is identified. The relation between particle kinetic
energy/surface energy and the particle temperature normalized by the softening temperature represents the original
non-dimensional groups able to represent a basis of a promising adhesion criterion.