Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Geometry And Statistics Of Jammed Granular Matter, Mark Robert Kanner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

We use simulations of soft bidisperse disks to determine the properties of jammed packings and investigate the statistical mechanics of these systems. We have created a novel method for the classification of structural subunits of a packing and to calculate relevant physical quantities. The classification scheme is based on a 20 type decomposition of the Delaunay triangles extracted from the centers of the particles. Subunit frequencies are determined from geometrical properties and used to calculate the important macroscopic system quantities co-ordination number, packing fraction, and pressure. These relationships suggest that microscopic particle geometry plays an important role in observed macroscopic …