We present a systematic investigation of the distribution of normal forces atthe boundaries of static packings of spheres. A new method for the efficientconstruction of large hexagonal-close-packed crystals is introduced and used tostudy the effect of spatial ordering on the distribution of forces. Underuniaxial compression we find that the form for the probability distribution ofnormal forces between particles does not depend strongly on crystallinity orinter-particle friction. In all cases the distribution decays exponentially atlarge forces and shows a plateau or possibly a small peak near the averageforce but does not tend to zero at small forces.
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