Structural and mechanical features of the order-disorder transition in experimental hard-sphere packings
- Hanifpour, M
- Francois, Nicolas
- Robins, Vanessa
- Kingston, Andrew
- Allaei, Mehdi
- Saadatfar, Mohammad
DOIAbstract
Here we present an experimental and numerical investigation on the grain-scale geometrical and mechanical properties of partially crystallized structures made of macroscopic frictional grains. Crystallization is inevitable in arrangements of monosized hard spheres with packing densities exceeding Bernal's limiting density φBernal≈0.64. We study packings of monosized hard spheres whose density spans over a wide range (0.59<φ<0.72). These experiments harness x-ray computed tomography, three-dimensional image analysis, and numerical simulations to access precisely the geometry and the 3D structure of internal forces within the sphere packings. We show that clear geometrical transitions coincide with modifications of the mechanical backbone of ...
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