Related papers: Structural transitions in granular packs: statisti…
The fractal properties of models of randomly placed $n$-dimensional spheres ($n$=1,2,3) are studied using standard techniques for calculating fractal dimensions in empirical data (the box counting and Minkowski-sausage techniques). Using…
Obtaining general relations between macroscopic properties of random assemblies, such as density, and the microscopic properties of their constituent particles, such as shape, is a foundational challenge in the study of amorphous materials.…
Using sedimentation to obtain precisely controlled packings of noncohesive spheres, we find that the volume fraction $\phi_{\rm RLP}$ of the loosest mechanically stable packing is in an operational sense well defined by a limit process.…
Although the concept of random close packing with an almost universal packing fraction of ~ 0.64 for hard spheres was introduced more than half a century ago, there are still ongoing debates. The main difficulty in searching the densest…
Unraveling the complexities of random packing in three dimensions has long puzzled physicists. While both experiments and simulations consistently show a maximum density of 64 percent for tightly packed random spheres, we still lack an…
Bead packs of up to 150,000 mono-sized spheres with packing densities ranging from 0.58 to 0.64 have been studied by means of X-ray Computed Tomography. These studies represent the largest and the most accurate description of the structure…
The glassy dynamics of soft harmonic spheres is often mapped onto the dynamics of hard spheres by considering an effective diameter for the soft particles and therefore an effective packing fraction. While in this approach the thermal…
The structural properties of static, jammed packings of monodisperse spheres in the vicinity of the jamming transition are investigated using large-scale computer simulations. At small wavenumber $k$, we argue that the anomalous behavior in…
We numerically produce fully amorphous assemblies of frictionless spheres in three dimensions and study the jamming transition these packings undergo at large volume fractions. We specify four protocols yielding a critical value for the…
We model the packing structure of a marginally jammed bulk ensemble of polydisperse spheres using an extended granocentric mode explicitly taking into account rattlers. This leads to a relation- ship between the characteristic parameters of…
We study theoretically the complex network of forces that is responsible for the static structure and properties of granular materials. We present detailed calculations for a model in which the fluctuations in the force distribution arise…
By means of numerical simulations, we study the influence of confinement on three-dimensional random close packed (RCP) granular materials subject to gravity. The effects of grain shape (spherical or polyhedral) and polydispersity on this…
Saturated random packing of particles built of two identical, relatively shifted spheres in two and three dimensional flat and homogeneous space was studied numerically using random sequential adsorption algorithm. The shift between centers…
We study the spontaneous crystallization of an assembly of highly monodisperse steel spheres under shaking, as it evolves from localized icosahedral ordering towards a packing reaching crystalline ordering. Towards this end, real space…
Using an athermal quasistatic simulation protocol, we study the distribution of free volumes in sheared hard-particle packings close to, but below, the random-close packing threshold. We show that under shear, and independent of volume…
We develop a model to describe the properties of random assemblies of polydisperse hard spheres. We show that the key features to describe the system are (i) the dependence between the free volume of a sphere and the various coordination…
Soft-granular media, such as dense emulsions, foams or tissues, exhibit either fluid- or solid-like properties depending on the applied external stresses. Whereas bulk rheology of such materials has been thoroughly investigated, the…
We introduce a deductive statistical mechanics approach for granular materials which is formally built from few realistic physical assumptions. The main finding is an universal behavior for the distribution of the density fluctuations. Such…
We have produced loose packings of cohesionless, frictional spheres by sequential deposition of highly-spherical, monodisperse particles through a fluid. By varying the properties of the fluid and the particles, we have identified the…
A fresh approach to the data from experiments with hard sphere colloids yields seminal insights into the glass transition. The precise determination of the fraction of particles caged by their neighbours is unprecedented and provides…