Volume fluctuations and geometrical constraints in granular packs.

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Volume fluctuations and geometrical constraints in granular packs.

Aste, T; (2006) Volume fluctuations and geometrical constraints in granular packs. Physical Review Letters , 96 (1) , Article 018002. 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.018002. Green open access

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Abstract

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.

Type:	Article
Title:	Volume fluctuations and geometrical constraints in granular packs.
Location:	US
Open access status:	An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI:	10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.018002
Publisher version:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.018002
Language:	English
Additional information:	© 2006 The American Physical Society
UCL classification:	UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science
URI:	https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1360837