Finite Packing Research Articles

A colloidal viewpoint on the sausage catastrophe and the finite sphere packing problem

It is commonly believed that the most efficient way to pack a finite number of equal-sized spheres is by arranging them tightly in a cluster. However, mathematicians have conjectured that a linear arrangement may actually result in the densest packing. Here, our combined experimental and simulation study provides a physical realization of the finite sphere packing problem by studying arrangements of colloids in a flaccid lipid vesicle. We map out a state diagram displaying linear, planar, and cluster conformations of spheres, as well as bistable states which alternate between cluster-plate and plate-linear conformations due to membrane fluctuations. Finally, by systematically analyzing truncated polyhedral packings, we identify clusters of 56 ≤ N ≤ 70 number of spheres, excluding N = 57 and 63, that pack more efficiently than linear arrangements.

Scaling Properties of the Number of Random Sequential Adsorption Iterations Needed to Generate Saturated Random Packing

The properties of the number of iterations in random sequential adsorption protocol needed to generate finite saturated random packing of spherically symmetric shapes were studied. Numerical results obtained for one, two, and three dimensional packings were supported by analytical calculations valid for any dimension d. It has been shown that the number of iterations needed to generate finite saturated packing is subject to Pareto distribution with exponent -1-1/d and the median of this distribution scales with packing size according to the power-law characterized by exponent d. Obtained results can be used in designing effective random sequential adsorption simulations.

$$L^p$$ L p -Integrability, Dimensions of Supports of Fourier Transforms and Applications

It is proved that there does not exist any non zero function in $L^p(\R^n)$ with $1\leq p\leq 2n/\alpha$ if its Fourier transform is supported by a set of finite packing $\alpha$-measure where $0<\alpha<n$. It is shown that the assertion fails for $p>2n/\alpha$. The result is applied to prove $L^p$ Wiener-Tauberian theorems for $\R^n$ and M(2).

Contact graphs of unit sphere packings revisited

The contact graph of an arbitrary finite packing of unit balls in Euclidean 3-space is the (simple) graph whose vertices correspond to the packing elements and whose two vertices are connected by an edge if the corresponding two packing elements touch each other. One of the most basic questions on contact graphs is to find the maximum number of edges that a contact graph of a packing of n unit balls can have. In this paper, improving earlier estimates, we prove that the number of touching pairs in an arbitrary packing of n unit balls in \({\mathbb{E}^{3}}\) is always less than \({6n - 0.926n^{\frac{2}{3}}}\) . Moreover, as a natural extension of the above problem, we propose to study the maximum number of touching triplets (resp., quadruples) in an arbitrary packing of n unit balls in Euclidean 3-space. In particular, we prove that the number of touching triplets (resp., quadruples) in an arbitrary packing of n unit balls in \({\mathbb{E}^3}\) is at most \({\frac{25}{3}n}\) (resp., \({\frac{11}{4}n}\)).

Stability of jammed packings II: the transverse length scale

As a function of packing fraction at zero temperature and applied stress, an amorphous packing of spheres exhibits a jamming transition where the system is sensitive to boundary conditions even in the thermodynamic limit. Upon further compression, the system should become insensitive to boundary conditions provided it is sufficiently large. Here we explore the linear response to a large class of boundary perturbations in 2 and 3 dimensions. We consider each finite packing with periodic-boundary conditions as the basis of an infinite square or cubic lattice and study properties of vibrational modes at arbitrary wave vector. We find that the stability of such modes be understood in terms of a competition between plane waves and the anomalous vibrational modes associated with the jamming transition; infinitesimal boundary perturbations become irrelevant for systems that are larger than a length scale that characterizes the transverse excitations. This previously identified length diverges at the jamming transition.

Contact Numbers for Congruent Sphere Packings in Euclidean 3-Space

The contact graph of an arbitrary finite packing of unit balls in Euclidean 3-space is the (simple) graph whose vertices correspond to the packing elements and whose two vertices are connected by an edge if the corresponding two packing elements touch each other. One of the most basic questions on contact graphs is to find the maximum number of edges that a contact graph of a packing of n unit balls can have. Our method for finding lower and upper estimates for the largest contact numbers is a combination of analytic and combinatorial ideas and it is also based on some recent results on sphere packings. In particular, we prove that if C(n) denotes the largest number of touching pairs in a packing of n>1 congruent balls in Euclidean 3-space, then $0.695<\frac{6n-C(n)}{n^{\frac{2}{3}}}< \sqrt[3]{486}=7.862\dots$ for all $n=\frac{k(2k^{2}+1)}{3}$ with k≥2.

Asymptotics for the minimum Riesz energy and best-packing on sets of finite packing premeasure

We show that for every compact set A ⊂ Rm of finite α -dimensional packing premeasure 0 α ) coincides with the outer measure of A constructed from this limit by method I. The asymptotic behavior of the discrete minimum energy on compact subsets of a self-similar set K satisfying the open set condition is also studied for s greater than the Hausdor dimension of K. In addition, similar problems are studied for the best-packing radius.

The asymptotic distribution of circles in the orbits of Kleinian groups

Let \(\mathcal{P}\) be a locally finite circle packing in the plane ℂ invariant under a non-elementary Kleinian group Γ and with finitely many Γ-orbits. When Γ is geometrically finite, we construct an explicit Borel measure on ℂ which describes the asymptotic distribution of small circles in \(\mathcal{P}\), assuming that either the critical exponent of Γ is strictly bigger than 1 or \(\mathcal{P}\) does not contain an infinite bouquet of tangent circles glued at a parabolic fixed point of Γ. Our construction also works for \(\mathcal{P}\) invariant under a geometrically infinite group Γ, provided Γ admits a finite Bowen-Margulis-Sullivan measure and the Γ-skinning size of \(\mathcal{P}\) is finite. Some concrete circle packings to which our result applies include Apollonian circle packings, Sierpinski curves, Schottky dances, etc.

A Computational Study of Lower Bounds for the Two Dimensional Bin Packing Problem

Abstract We survey lower bounds for the variant of the two-dimensional bin packing problem where items cannot be rotated. We prove that the dominance relation claimed by Carlier et al. [Carlier, J., F. Clautiaux and A. Moukrim, New reduction procedures and lower bounds for the two-dimensional bin packing problem with fixed orientation, Computers and Operations Research 34 (2007), pp. 2223–2250] between their lower bounds and those of Boschetti and Mingozzi [Boschetti, M. and A. Mingozzi, The two-dimensional finite bin packing problem part I: New lower bounds for the oriented case, 40R 1 (2003), pp. 27–42] is not valid. We analyze the performance of lower bounds from the literature and we provide the results of a computational experiment.

Granular Brownian motion

We study the stochastic motion of an intruder in a dilute driven granular gas. All particlesare coupled to a thermostat, representing the external energy source, which is thesum of random forces and a viscous drag. The dynamics of the intruder, in thelarge mass limit, is well described by a linear Langevin equation, combining theeffects of the external bath and of the ‘granular bath’. The drag and diffusioncoefficients are calculated under a few assumptions, whose validity is well verified innumerical simulations. We also discuss the non-equilibrium properties of the intruderdynamics, as well as the corrections due to finite packing fraction or finite intrudermass.

Gauges for the cookie-cutter sets

Let E be a cookie-cutter set with dimHE = s. It is known that the Hausdorff s-measure and the packing s-measure of the set E are positive and finite. In this paper, we prove that for a gauge function g the set E has positive and finite Hausdorff g-measure if and only if 0 < lim inft→0\( \tfrac{{g(t)}} {{t^s }} \) < ∞. Also, we prove that for a doubling gauge function g the set E has positive and finite packing g-measure if and only if 0 < lim supt→0\( \tfrac{{g(t)}} {{t^s }} \)< ∞.

The elastic modulus, percolation, and disaggregation of strongly interacting, intersecting antiplane cracks

We study the modulus of a medium containing a varying density of nonintersecting and intersecting antiplane cracks. The modulus of nonintersecting, strongly interacting, 2D antiplane cracks obeys a mean-field theory for which the mean field on a crack inserted in a random ensemble is the applied stress. The result of a self-consistent calculation in the nonintersecting case predicts zero modulus at finite packing, which is physically impossible. Differential self-consistent theories avoid the zero modulus problem, but give results that are more compliant than those of both mean-field theory and computer simulations. For problems in which antiplane cracks are allowed to intersect and form crack clusters or larger effective cracks, percolation at finite packing is expected when the shear modulus vanishes. At low packing factor, the modulus follows the dilute, mean-field curve, but with increased packing, mutual interactions cause the modulus to be less than the mean-field result and to vanish at the percolation threshold. The "nodes-links-blobs" model predicts a power-law approach to the percolation threshold at a critical packing factor of p(c) = 4.426. We conclude that a power-law variation of modulus with packing, with exponent 1.3 drawn tangentially to the mean-field nonintersecting relation and passing through the percolation threshold, can be expected to be a good approximation. The approximation is shown to be consistent with simulations of intersecting rectangular cracks at all packing densities through to the percolation value for this geometry, p(c) = 0.4072.

Self-Consistent Field Theory Study of the Effect of Grafting Density on the Height of a Weak Polyelectrolyte Brush

The height of weakly basic polyelectrolyte brushes in the osmotic brush regime is studied as a function of the grafting density using a numerical self-consistent field theory derived from the (semi)grand canonical partition function. The theory is shown to properly account for the local nature of the charge equilibrium and to capture the basic behaviors of polyelectrolyte brushes. On one hand, we find, in agreement with recent experiments, that the scaling of brush height with grafting density can be qualitatively different at intermediate chain lengths than that predicted by basic scaling arguments. This difference is attributed to the relative strength of electrostatic type interactions compared to finite segment size packing constraints. On the other hand, the trend of decreasing brush height with increasing grafting density predicted by the classic scaling analysis is recovered for large molecular weight polymers immersed in a solution of very weak ionic strength.

On the packing chromatic number of some lattices

For a positive integer k , a k -packing in a graph G is a subset A of vertices such that the distance between any two distinct vertices from A is more than k . The packing chromatic number of G is the smallest integer m such that the vertex set of G can be partitioned as V 1 , V 2 , … , V m where V i is an i -packing for each i . It is proved that the planar triangular lattice T and the three-dimensional integer lattice Z 3 do not have finite packing chromatic numbers.

Gauges for the self‐similar sets

For a self-similar set E with the open set condition we completely determine the class of its Hausdorff gauges and the class of its prepacking gauges. Moreover, its Hausdorff measures and its packing premeasures with respect to the corresponding gauges are estimated. Without the open set condition we prove that a doubling gauge function is a packing gauge of E if and only if it is a prepacking gauge of E. Also, we give some extensions and applications of these results. Here a gauge function is called a Hausdorff, a prepacking, and a packing gauge of a set, if with respect to the function the set has positive and finite Hausdorff measure, packing premeasure, and packing measure, respectively. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Ergodic Theory of Parabolic Horseshoes

In this paper we develop the ergodic theory for a horseshoe map f which is uniformly hyperbolic, except at one parabolic fixed point ω and possibly also on Ws(ω). We call f a parabolic horseshoe map. In order to analyze dynamical and geometric properties of such horseshoes, by making use of induced maps, we establish, in the context of σ-finite measures, an appropriate version of the variational principle for continuous potentials with mild distortion defined on subshifts of finite type. Staying in this setting, we propose a concept of σ-finite equilibrium states (each classical probability equilibrium state is a σ-finite equilibrium state). We then study the unstable pressure function \({t \mapsto P(-t \log |Df| E^u|)}\), the corresponding finite and σ-finite equilibrium states and their associated conditional measures. The main idea is to relate the pressure function to the pressure of an embedded parabolic iterated function system and to apply the developed theory of the symbolic σ-finite thermodynamic formalism. We prove, in particular, an appropriate form of the Bowen-Ruelle-Manning-McCluskey formula, the existence of exactly two σ-finite ergodic conservative equilibrium states for the potential –tulog |Df|Eu| (where tu denotes the unstable dimension), one of which is the Dirac δ-measure supported at the parabolic fixed point and the other being non-atomic. We also show that the conditional measures of this non-atomic equilibrium state on unstable manifolds, are equivalent to (finite and positive) packing measures, whereas the Hausdorff measures vanish. As an application of our results we obtain a classification for the existence of a generalized physical measure, as well as a criteria implying the non-existence of an ergodic measure of maximal dimension.

A Semi-empirical Correlation for Pressure Drop in Packed Beds of Spherical Particles

The effect of a confining wall on the pressure drop of fluid flow through packed beds of spherical particles with small bed-to-particle diameter ratios was investigated to develop an improved pressure drop correlation. The dependency of pressure loss on both wall friction and increased porosity near the wall was accounted for by using a theoretical approach. A semi-empirical model was created based upon the capillary-orifice model, which included a wall correction factor for the inertial pressure loss. In this model, packed beds were treated as a bundle of capillary tubes whose orifice diameter in the core region was different from that of the wall region. Using this model, a new pressure drop correlation was obtained, based on the Ergun equation and applicable for a wide range of Reynolds numbers (10−2–103). The proposed correlation was compared with previous correlations, as well as with experimental data. This correlation showed close agreement with the experimental data for both low- and high-Reynolds number regimes and for a wide range of bed-to-particle diameter ratios. The ratio of the pressure drop in finite packing to that in homogeneous packing was then calculated. This ratio clearly shows how the wall effect depends on the Reynolds number and the bed-to-particle diameter ratio.

Solvation of Proteins: Linking Thermodynamics to Geometry

We calculate the solvation free energy of proteins in the tube model of Banavar and Maritan [Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 23 (2003)10.1103/RevModPhys.75.23] using morphological thermodynamics which is based on Hadwiger's theorem of integral geometry. Thereby we extend recent results by Snir and Kamien [Science 307, 1067 (2005)10.1126/science.1106243] to hard-sphere solvents at finite packing fractions and obtain new conclusions. Depending on the solvent properties, parameter regions are identified where the beta sheet, the optimal helix, or neither is favored.

Simultaneous design of components layout and supporting structures using coupled shape and topology optimization technique

The purpose of this paper was to study the layout design of the components and their supporting structures in a finite packing space. A coupled shape and topology optimization (CSTO) technique is proposed. On one hand, by defining the location and orientation of each component as geometric design variables, shape optimization is carried out to find the optimal layout of these components and a finite-circle method (FCM) is used to avoid the overlap between the components. On the other hand, the material configuration of the supporting structures that interconnect components is optimized simultaneously based on topology optimization method. As the FE mesh discretizing the packing space, i.e., design domain, has to be updated itertively to accommodate the layout variation of involved components, topology design variables, i.e., density variables assigned to density points that are distributed regularly in the entire design domain will be introduced in this paper instead of using traditional pseudo-density variables associated with finite elements as in standard topology optimization procedures. These points will thus dominate the pseudo-densities of the surrounding elements. Besides, in the CSTO, the technique of embedded mesh is used to save the computing time of the remeshing procedure, and design sensitivities are calculated w.r.t both geometric variables and density variables. In this paper, several design problems maximizing structural stiffness are considered subject to the material volume constraint. Reasonable designs of components layout and supporting structures are obtained numerically.

New lower bounds for the three-dimensional finite bin packing problem

The three-dimensional finite bin packing problem (3BP) consists of determining the minimum number of large identical three-dimensional rectangular boxes, bins, that are required for allocating without overlapping a given set of three-dimensional rectangular items. The items are allocated into a bin with their edges always parallel or orthogonal to the bin edges. The problem is strongly NP-hard and finds many practical applications. We propose new lower bounds for the problem where the items have a fixed orientation and then we extend these bounds to the more general problem where for each item the subset of rotations by 90° allowed is specified. The proposed lower bounds have been evaluated on different test problems derived from the literature. Computational results show the effectiveness of the new lower bounds.