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Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 018301 (2008) [4 pages]

Onset of Mechanical Stability in Random Packings of Frictional Spheres

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Melissa Jerkins, Matthias Schröter*, and Harry L. Swinney†
Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA

Tim J. Senden, Mohammad Saadatfar, and Tomaso Aste
Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, The Australian National University, 0200 Canberra, ACT, Australia

Received 15 November 2007; revised 28 April 2008; published 2 July 2008

Using sedimentation to obtain precisely controlled packings of noncohesive spheres, we find that the volume fraction ϕRLP of the loosest mechanically stable packing is in an operational sense well defined by a limit process. This random loose packing volume fraction decreases with decreasing pressure p and increasing interparticle friction coefficient μ. Using x-ray tomography to correct for a container boundary effect that depends on particle size, we find for rough particles in the limit p→0 a new lower bound, ϕRLP=0.550±0.001.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.018301
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.018301
PACS:
45.70.Cc, 46.65.+g, 47.57.ef

*matthias.schroeter@ds.mpg.de

†swinney@chaos.utexas.edu

 
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