SIMULATION OF PACKING DENSITY AND LIQUID FLOW FIXED-BEDS - II - VORONOI POLYHEDRA STUDIES

A study of Voronoi polyhedra was applied to the computer simulation of packed beds carried out by Spedding and Spencer (1995). Although the voidage of the simulated packed beds was virtually the same as that fo und by other methods, the variance was less because the Voronoi polyhe dron provided a much more precise measurement of volume. The relative skewness and the average numbers of faces per polyhedron were shown to increase with voidage in agreement with prediction. The distribution bond lengths also increased with voidage corresponding to an increase in the size and length of holes in the simulated packings. The data su ggested that the geometric nearest neighbours would be confined to a d istance of root 2r(b). Crystal implantation within the simulated packa ging provided some insight into the possible growth of crystal structu res. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.