Computer simulation and statistical geometric model for contacts in binary random two-dimensional disk packings

Abstract

EXPERIMENTAL investigation of the characteristics of multi-component packings of particles would involve a large number of manipulations for even very few components in the mixture, and each additional component would increase this number enormously. A method of calculating the properties of such mixtures would be of interest if only as a framework within which to design experiments. One difficulty is that for this very reason a theoretical approach cannot be subjected to a thorough experimental verification. We therefore think it useful to take the problem further by comparing two previously published theoretical approaches, by a statistical geometric model¹ and a computer simulation², for calculating the contacts between disks in two-dimensional multicomponent random mixtures.