The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	An analysis of the dense packing of disks : a computer simulated approach
Author:	Tsaur, Jir-Yih
View Online:	njit-etd1988-016 (xii, 158 pages ~ 5.1 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Mechanical Engineering
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Mechanical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Rosato, Anthony D. (Committee chair) Geskin, E. S. (Committee member) Dave, Rajesh N. (Committee member)
Date:	1988
Keywords:	Computer simulation. Hard disks (Computer science). Magnetic disks.
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	This thesis is concerned with the analysis of dense packing of hard disks. The Voronoi diagram and the geometric neighbours were first computed. The average number of geometric neighbours of a disk is six. It is thus more efficient to choose structural neighbours from among the geometric neighbours than from among all other disks. Through the Monte Carlo simulation by Rosato et. al., disk configurations after pouring and subsequent shaking were provided for analysis. The mean number of geometric neighbours and the average coordination number were computed. The angular distribution of the structural neighbours was discussed. The packing fraction increases with number of shakes in a linear relationship. It seems to be packing into an ordered close packing after continued shaking. A configuration constrained by two rigid vertical walls was analyzed. It was found the packing fraction is smallest in the vicinity of the wall and increased asymptotically to the mean packing fraction when moving away from the wall.