Universal structural characteristics of planar granular packs.

The dependence of structural self-organization of granular materials on preparation and grain parameters is key to predictive modeling. We study 60 different mechanically equilibrated polydisperse disc packs, generated numerically by two protocols. We show that, for same-variance disc size distributions (DSDs), (1) the mean coordination number of rattler-free packs versus the packing fraction is a function independent of initial conditions, friction, and the DSD, and (2) all quadron volume and cell order distributions collapse to universal forms, also independent of the above. This apparent universality suggests that, contrary to common wisdom, equilibrated granular structures may be determined mainly by the packing protocol and higher moments of the DSD.