Modeling the impact of single angular particles contributes to an understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of erosive wear. However, most previous studies focus on well-defined symmetrical particles, which are not representative of abrasive particles. Hence, this study develops a mesh-free model based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics to simulate the impact(s) of arbitrarily shaped particles on ductile material. These particles are modeled as polygonal rigid bodies by measuring the corner vertices. Oxygen-free high thermal conductivity copper is selected as the target material. The ductile material properties are modeled using the Mie-Gruneisen equation of state and the Johnson-Cook model. In order to investigate the erosion dependency of angular-type particles on the initial orientation, simulations are performed by varying the initial input conditions and using different types of angular particles. Common deformation mechanisms such as cutting, machining, ploughing, and prying-off are successfully reproduced by the model. The initial orientation is found to influence the erosion mechanism through three shape-related parameters, namely the rake angle, centroid offset angle, and angularity of the impacting vertex. In particular, the rake angle significantly influences the erosion mechanism through particle rotation, although this effect decreases as the angularity increases. The centroid offset angle additionally changes the position of the critical rake angle, producing an opposite effect on the backward and forward impact. For irregularly shaped particles, the complexity is reflected in the irregular relationship between kinetic energy loss and the initial orientation of the particle; the variation in the rebound angle exhibits a similar trend to the kinetic energy loss. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.