TY - JOUR
T1 - Experiments on random packings of ellipsoids
AU - Man, Weining
AU - Donev, Aleksandar
AU - Stillinger, Frank H.
AU - Sullivan, Matthew T.
AU - Russel, William B.
AU - Heeger, David
AU - Inati, Souheil
AU - Torquato, Salvatore
AU - Chaikin, P. M.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2005/5/20
Y1 - 2005/5/20
N2 - Recent simulations indicate that ellipsoids can pack randomly more densely than spheres and, remarkably, for axes ratios near 1.25 1 0.8 can approach the densest crystal packing (fcc) of spheres, with a packing fraction of 74%. We demonstrate that such dense packings are realizable. We introduce a novel way of determining packing density for a finite sample that minimizes surface effects. We have fabricated ellipsoids and show that, in a sphere, the radial packing fraction (r) can be obtained from V(h), the volume of added fluid to fill the sphere to height h. We also obtain (r) from a magnetic resonance imaging scan. The measurements of the overall density avr, (r) and the core density 0=0.74±0.005 agree with simulations.
AB - Recent simulations indicate that ellipsoids can pack randomly more densely than spheres and, remarkably, for axes ratios near 1.25 1 0.8 can approach the densest crystal packing (fcc) of spheres, with a packing fraction of 74%. We demonstrate that such dense packings are realizable. We introduce a novel way of determining packing density for a finite sample that minimizes surface effects. We have fabricated ellipsoids and show that, in a sphere, the radial packing fraction (r) can be obtained from V(h), the volume of added fluid to fill the sphere to height h. We also obtain (r) from a magnetic resonance imaging scan. The measurements of the overall density avr, (r) and the core density 0=0.74±0.005 agree with simulations.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.198001
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.198001
M3 - Article
C2 - 16090214
AN - SCOPUS:27144454071
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 94
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 19
M1 - 198001
ER -