Contact forces in regular 3D granular pile

TL;DR

This paper provides exact calculations of contact forces in a 3D face-centered cubic granular pile, revealing that the pressure distribution on the base remains uniform, similar to 2D cases.

Contribution

It offers the first exact results for contact forces in a 3D FCC granular pile, extending understanding from 2D to 3D structures.

Findings

Pressure on the base is uniform in the 3D pile.

Exact contact force distributions are derived for FCC structures.

Results confirm similarities between 2D and 3D pile pressure distributions.

Abstract

We present exact results for the contact forces in a three dimensional static piling of identical, stiff and frictionless spheres. The pile studied is a pyramid of equilateral triangular base (``stack of cannonballs'') with a FCC (face centered cubic) structure. We show in particular that, as for the two dimensional case, the pressure on the base of such a pile is uniform.