Investigating the geometrical structure of disordered sphere packings

Bead packs of up to 150,000 mono-sized spheres with packing densities ranging from 0.58 to 0.64 have been studied by means of X-ray computed tomography. These studies represent the largest and the most accurate description of the structure of disordered packings at the grain-scale ever attempted. We investigate the geometrical structure of such packings looking for signatures of disorder. We discuss ways to characterize and classify these systems and the implications that local geometry can have on densification dynamics. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.