Elegance of disordered granular packings: a validation of Edward's hypothesis.
We have found a way to analyze Edwards' density of states for static granular packings in the special case of round, rigid, frictionless grains assuming a constant coordination number. It obtains the most entropic density of single grain states, which predicts several observables including the distribution of contact forces. We compare these results against empirical data obtained in dynamic simulations of granular packings. The agreement is quite good, helping validate the use of statistical mechanics methods in granular physics. The differences between theory and empirics are mainly related to the coordination number, and when the empirical data are sorted by that number we obtain several insights that suggest an underlying elegance in the density of states.
Metzger
Philip T
PT
The KSC Applied Physics Laboratory, John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA YA-C3-E, Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899, USA. Philip.T.Metzger@nasa.gov
Donahue
Carly M
CM