Experimental investigation of the packing structure of multi-sized spheres with liquid addition

Abstract

The packing of multi-sized wet spheres is highly intricate, shaped by the interplay of interparticle forces induced by the presence of liquid. This study presents a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the microscopic particle arrangement within a multi-sized wet sphere packing. To achieve this, a multi-sized wet sphere packing is obtained experimentally and is then characterized by various analytical techniques, in terms of coordination number (CN), pair correlation function (PCF), topological and metric properties of the Voronoi-Delaunay tessellation. Through CN and PCF analysis, distinctive packing features such as agglomerates and particle chains are identified and characterized. Furthermore, the application of the Voronoi and Delaunay tessellation techniques uncovers the existence of heterogeneous clusters of particles in contact and non-contact states. These tessellation methods also shed light on the distorted pore structure that emerges within the packing. The insights gained from this study may serve to enhance the assessment and development of innovative simulation methods where capillary and liquid-related forces acting on wet particles with a size distribution are considered.