2013/05/31 by Takashi Matsushima, Raphaël Blumenfeld, Raphael Blumenfeld · 36 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic packing factor #Composite material #Computer science #Condensed matter physics #Coordination number #Geotechnical Engineering and Soil Mechanics #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Granular material #Landslides and related hazards #Materials science #Mechanics #Physics #Planar #Statistical physics #Thermodynamics #Universality (dynamical systems) #Volume fraction #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.112.098003
published in Physical Review Letters 112(9), 098003 (American Physical Society) · 4 pages, 7 figures
arxiv created 2013/11/01 · openalex publication_date 2014/03/06 · arxiv updated 2015/06/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The dependence of structural self-organization of granular materials on preparation and grain parameters is key to predictive modeling. We study 60 different mechanically equilibrated polydisperse disc packs, generated numerically by two protocols. We show that, for same-variance disc size distributions (DSDs), (1) the mean coordination number of rattler-free packs versus the packing fraction is a function independent of initial conditions, friction, and the DSD, and (2) all quadron volume and cell order distributions collapse to universal forms, also independent of the above. This apparent universality suggests that, contrary to common wisdom, equilibrated granular structures may be determined mainly by the packing protocol and higher moments of the DSD.