eprintid: 1417421
rev_number: 28
eprint_status: archive
userid: 608
dir: disk0/01/41/74/21
datestamp: 2014-01-10 19:32:46
lastmod: 2021-09-19 23:41:38
status_changed: 2014-01-10 19:32:46
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
item_issues_count: 0
creators_name: Finney, JL
title: Bernal's road to random packing and the structure of liquids
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: C06
divisions: F60
keywords: liquid structure, random packing, Voronoi polyhedra
note: © 2013 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The moral rights of the named author(s) have been asserted.
abstract: Until the 1960s, liquids were generally regarded as either dense gases or disordered solids, and theoretical attempts at understanding their structures and properties were largely based on those concepts. Bernal, himself a crystallographer, was unhappy with either approach, preferring to regard simple liquids as ‘homogeneous, coherent and essentially irregular assemblages of molecules containing no crystalline regions’. He set about realizing this conceptual model through a detailed examination of the structures and properties of random packings of spheres. In order to test the relevance of the model to real liquids, ways had to be found to realize and characterize random packings. This was at a time when computing was slow and in its infancy, so he and his collaborators set about building models in the laboratory, and examining aspects of their structures in order to characterize them in ways which would enable comparison with the properties of real liquids. Some of the imaginative – often time consuming and frustrating – routes followed are described, as well the comparisons made with the properties of simple liquids. With the increase of the power of computers in the 1960s, computational approaches became increasingly exploited in random packing studies. This enabled the use of packing concepts, and the tools developed to characterize them, in understanding systems as diverse as metallic glasses, crystal–liquid interfaces, protein structures, enzyme–substrate interactions and the distribution of galaxies, as well as their exploitation in, for example, oil extraction, understanding chromatographic separation columns, and packed beds in industrial processes.
date: 2013-11-05
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2013.770179
vfaculties: VMPS
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_source: WoS-Lite
elements_id: 922402
doi: 10.1080/14786435.2013.770179
language_elements: aa
lyricists_name: Finney, John
lyricists_id: JLFIN58
full_text_status: public
publication: PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE
volume: 93
number: 31-33
pagerange: 3940 - 3969
issn: 1478-6435
citation:        Finney, JL;      (2013)    Bernal's road to random packing and the structure of liquids.                   PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE , 93  (31-33)   3940 - 3969.    10.1080/14786435.2013.770179 <https://doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2013.770179>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1417421/1/10.1080-14786435.2013.770179.pdf