  We investigate the impact of droplets of dense suspensions onto a solid
substrate. We show that a global hydrodynamic balance is unable to predict the
splash onset and propose to replace it by an energy balance at the level of the
particles in the suspension. We experimentally verify that the resulting,
particle-based Weber number gives a reliable, particle size and density
dependent splash onset criterion. We further show that the same argument also
explains why in bimodal systems smaller particles are more likely to escape
than larger ones.
