Ordering and metastability in jamming structures of sphere packings--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Fan, W., Wang, J., An, X., Wu, Y., Zou, Y., Dong, K., . . . Yu, A. (2025). Ordering and metastability in jamming structures of sphere packings. Particuology, 99, 128-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2025.02.021

Ordering and metastability in jamming structures of sphere packings

Wei Fan^{a b}, Ju Wang^a, Xizhong An^a *, Yongli Wu^c, Yi Zou^d, Kejun Dong^e, Runyu Yang^f, Ruiping Zou^d, Aibing Yu^d

a Key Laboratory for Ecological Metallurgy of Multimetallic Mineral of Ministry of Education, School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China
b Anhui Key Laboratory of Green and Low-Carbon Technology in Cement Manufacturing, Hefei Cement Research & Design Institute Co., Ltd., Hefei, 230051, China
c Faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Delft University Of Technology, 2628, CN Delft, the Netherlands
d ARC Research Hub for Smart Process Design and Control, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia
e School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University, 2751, Penrith, NSW, Australia
f School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia

10.1016/j.partic.2025.02.021

Volume 99, April 2025, Pages 128-139

Received 9 January 2025, Revised 8 February 2025, Accepted 27 February 2025, Available online 7 March 2025, Version of Record 13 March 2025.

E-mail: anxz@mail.neu.edu.cn

Highlights

• A method for capturing the jamming-point of granular systems is developed.

• The proposed jamming angle can distinguish order/disorder of packing structures.

• The nature of metastable structures is revealed.

• A micro-structural correlation between order, jamming and metastable states is established.

Abstract

Metastability, disorder and jamming are the typical characteristics of amorphous systems, while the related structure changes remain unclear. Sphere packing is often used as a structure model for amorphous and crystalline states. In this article, sphere packing systems with packing densities ranging from 0.50 to 0.74 were simulated by using Discrete Element Method (DEM), and the obtained packing structures were assessed to investigate the densification process and jamming properties. An order parameter that can effectively distinguish the order and disorder of packing structures was proposed based on the distribution characteristics of jamming angles. Then the evolution of jamming characteristics during the transition from Random Loose Packing (RLP) to Random Close Packing (RCP) and the jamming-jamming relations of different packing structures were demonstrated. On this basis, a correlation between order-jamming-metastable states from the microscopic structural perspective was established, which is of valuable theoretical and practical implications for the characterization and synthesis of crystalline and amorphous materials.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Particle packing; Jamming transition; Ordering and metastability; Dynamics and mechanisms

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