Dense Disordered Jammed Packings of Hard Spherocylinders with a Low Aspect Ratio: A Characterization of Their Structure.

This work numerically investigates dense disordered (maximally random) jammed packings of hard spherocylinders of cylinder length L and diameter D by focusing on L / D ∈ [0,2]. It is within this interval that one expects that the packing fraction of these dense disordered jammed packings ϕ MRJ hsc attains a maximum. This work confirms the form of the graph ϕ MRJ hsc versus L / D : here, comparably to certain previous investigations, it is found that the maximal ϕ MRJ hsc = 0.721 ± 0.001 occurs at L / D = 0.45 ± 0.05. Furthermore, this work meticulously characterizes the structure of these dense disordered jammed packings via the special pair-correlation function of the interparticle distance scaled by the contact distance and the ensuing analysis of the statistics of the hard spherocylinders in contact: here, distinctly from all previous investigations, it is found that the dense disordered jammed packings of hard spherocylinders with 0.45 ≲ L / D ≤ 2 are isostatic.