Abstract
The newly developed “void expansion method” allows for an efficient generation of porous packings of spherical particles over a wide range of volume fractions using the discrete element method. Particles are randomly placed under addition of much smaller “void-particles”. Then, the void-particle radius is increased repeatedly, thereby rearranging the structural particles until formation of a dense particle packing. The structural particles’ mean coordination number was used to characterize the evolving microstructures. At some void radius, a transition from an initially low to a higher mean coordination number is found, which was used to characterize the influence of the various simulation parameters. For structural and void-particle stiffnesses of the same order of magnitude, the transition is found at constant total volume fraction slightly below the random close packing limit. For decreasing void-particle stiffness the transition is shifted towards a smaller void-particle radius and becomes smoother.
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Schenker, I., Filser, F.T., Herrmann, H.J. et al. Generation of porous particle structures using the void expansion method. Granular Matter 11, 201–208 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-009-0129-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-009-0129-3