Self-assembling of dry and cohesive non-Brownian spheres

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2008 Jul;78(1 Pt 1):011302. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.78.011302. Epub 2008 Jul 11.

Abstract

Numerous experimental and computational studies have been carried out in recent years to understand the mechanisms governing the compaction of granular systems. Here the problem is further investigated from a different perspective. We compact spheres by a vibrational annealing method and show how the interactions between them and the walls determine the final structure. Dry spheres self-assemble only in body-centered-tetragonal structures, while cohesive ones surpass such density and reach the most compact face-centered-cubic phase. We argue that such polymorphism is due to a molecularlike behavior induced by a compensation mechanism between free and vibrational energies.