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