A particle dynamics Simulation model is developed and used to design a mechanical damping device that uses micro or nano powders as the damping medium. A damping device based oil a powder has the advantage over the traditional use of a Viscous fluid of temperature insensitive operation. Adhesion forces significantly affect the behavior of small particles. The damping mechanism targeted stems from energy dissipated due to the breaking of many adhesive particle contacts. Adhesive contacts can dissipate energy due to hysteresis in the force between particle loading and unloading. In this work adhesion hysteresis is added to the JKR model of adhesive contact and then used in particle dynamics simulations. The effects of adhesive properties and packing densities are studied in two device geometries (shear and piston) using simulation. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.