Structure and distribution of arches in shaken hard sphere deposits

摘要

We investigate the structure and distribution of arches formed by spherical,hard particles shaken in an external field after they come to rest. Arches (orbridges) are formed during a computer-simulated, non-sequential deposition ofthe spheres after each shaking cycle. We identify these arches by means of aconnectivity criterion and study their structural characteristics and spatialdistribution. We find that neither the size distribution nor the shape of thearches is strongly affected by the packing fraction of the deposit. Conversely,the spatial distribution and orientation of the bridges do depend on the volumefraction occupied by the spheres.