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A Granocentric viewpoint on random packing of spheres
I will present and discuss a simple statistical model for the random packing of frictionless, originally introduced to find the link between polydispersity and packing structure. We simplify the problem by
considering the “granocentric” point of view of a single particle in the bulk, thereby reducing random packing to the assembly of nearest neighbours, followed by a random choice of contacts among them. The model is based on only two parameters, the available solid angle around each particle and the ratio of contacts to neighbours, which are both directly obtainable from experiments or simulations. As a result, the model allows for the microscopic distributions of nearest neighbours and contacts, the local density fluctuations as well as the global density of the packing, given the size distribution of the particles. We find that this granocentric view captures the essential properties of the polydisperse emulsion packing. I will conclude by presenting the limitations of this approach and possible extensions.