https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01898-0
Regular Article
Packing of spheres by clusters of regular tetrahedra configurations
Centre RAPSODEE, IMT Mines Albi, Route de Teillet, 81000, Albi, France
a
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Received:
25
August
2025
Accepted:
28
August
2025
Published online:
4
September
2025
Abstract
We study the packing of monodisperse spheres generated by setting spheres into contact of three spheres in mutual contact. The network obtained by connecting the centres of the spheres is a cluster of regular tetrahedra glued face to face. In a previous study, we investigated the case of a unique cluster built by aleatory placing a new sphere to fill as much as possible a spherical container [de Ryck, Granular Matter (2023) 25:42]. We extend here the investigation to the case of a cluster limited by periodic boundary layers. The mean packing fraction and the close contact interdistance distribution are found to reach a plateau if the smallest boundary layer length is higher than a threshold value around five times the spheres diameter, independently on the relative values of the boundary layer lengths.
The paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Étienne Guyon.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
