2006/12/17 by T. Aste, T Aste, T. Di Matteo +8 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Material Dynamics and Properties #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/0295-5075/79/24003
published as Euro. Phys. Lett. 79 (2007) 24003 · 4 pages 3 figures
arxiv created 2006/12/17 · openalex publication_date 2007/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
We have discovered an invariant distribution for local packing configurations in static granular media. This distribution holds in experiments for packing fractions covering most of the range from random loose packed to random close packed, for bead packs prepared both in air and in water. Assuming only that there exist elementary cells in which the system volume is subdivided, we derive from statistical mechanics a distribution that is in accord with the observations. This universal distribution function for granular media is analogous to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution for molecular gasses.