Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 28: Poster - Complex Fluids, Granular Matter, Glasses

DY 28.9: Poster

Dienstag, 8. März 2016, 18:15–21:00, Poster C

The densest packing of ellipsoids — Fabian M. Schaller, •Robert F. B. Weigel, and Sebastian C. Kapfer — Theoretische Physik 1, FAU Erlangen, Germany

The relationship between local structure and macroscopic properties is a current research focus in granular matter. We study the distribution of local packing fractions (or Voronoi volumina) as a sensitive observable in order to test theoretical descriptions of such systems. Previously, mainly packings of spherical particles were considered. Here, we focus on packings of uniaxial ellipsoids as an instance of aspherical particles. In particular, we report numerical results on the locally densest packings of ellipsoids with aspect ratio between 0.7 and 1.4, generalizing the famous ``kissing problem''. Like in the spherical case, these packings locally exceed the density of known crystal structures. In low concentrations, distorted variations of some of these packing motifs can be found embedded in dense random packings of ellipsoids. Moreover, we find that the volume and packing fraction distributions in dense random ellipsoid packings deviate from theoretical predictions in the literature.