2005/07/12 by Tomaso Aste · 4 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Landslides and related hazards #Material Dynamics and Properties #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.018002
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006) 018002 · 5 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2005/07/12 · openalex publication_date 2006/01/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
I study the structural organization and correlations in very large packings of equally sized spheres, reconstructed in three dimensions with x-ray computed tomography. I show that the geometrical structure can be conveniently studied as a packing of irregular tetrahedra with volume distribution that must decay exponentially with parameters controlled by the conditions of mechanical stability, nonoverlapping, and space filling. I argue that the system's structure can be described as constituted of two phases: (1) an "unconstrained" phase which freely shares the volume and (2) a "constrained" phase which assumes configurations accordingly with the geometrical constraints. It results that the granular system exploits heterogeneity maximizing freedom and entropy while constraining mechanical stability.