A quasi-physical method for random packing of spherical particles

Abstract

In this work, a quasi-physical method for the random packing of spherical particles based on the equivalent spring structure and the principle of force equilibrium is proposed. The model is inspired by a meshing method “Distmesh”. For the purpose of generating a feasible packing, the proposed model calculates the displacements of each particle based on physical principles and disregards forces that may not help with convergence, thus offering a natural and possibly fast route towards the final packing configuration. The packing densities predicted by the proposed method are in good agreement with those predicted by other methods and the experimental results. Finally, the topological properties of the packing of particles with log-normal size distributions, binary mixtures and ternary mixtures are evaluated by radical tessellation. The results show that the particle size differences and the proportions of each kind of particles have significant effect on the packing properties of the mixture. • Proposing a new quasi-physical model for the random packing of particles. • The model is inspired by a meshing method, which can more easily form force grids. • The model offers a natural and possibly fast route towards the final packing. • The particle size and volume ratio have significant effect on the packing properties.