The Geometrical Structure of Disordered Sphere Packings

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive empirical analysis of large disordered sphere packings using X-ray CT, revealing local geometrical structures and their influence on global packing properties.

Contribution

It presents the largest and most accurate empirical study of disordered sphere packings, classifying local arrangements and analyzing their impact on overall structure.

Findings

Identification of local geometrical signatures in sphere packings

Classification of local arrangements based on topological and geometrical criteria

Insights into how local geometry influences the formation of amorphous structures

Abstract

The three dimensional structure of large packings of monosized spheres with volume fractions ranging between 0.58 and 0.64 has been studied with X-ray Computed Tomography. We search for signatures of organization, we classify local arrangements and we explore the effects of local geometrical constrains on the global packing. This study is the largest and the most accurate empirical analysis of disordered packings at the grain-scale to date with over 140,000 sphere coordinates mapped. We discuss topological and geometrical ways to characterize and classify these systems, and discuss implications that local geometry can have on the mechanisms of formation of these amorphous structures.