Packing of Cylindrical Particles with a Length Distribution

The packing of cylindrical particles with log-normal and modified power-law length distributions has been experimentally studied. The results indicate that the packing density is heavily dependent on the parameters in the two distributions. However, this dependence cannot be predicted by the direct analogy to that for the packing of spherical particles. It is postulated that the packing of nonspherical particles be governed by two factors: the shape effect and the size effect, which respectively correspond to the unmixing and mixing states of a particle mixture and are quantified from the specific volumes of the two states. Analysis of the results suggests that the shape effect is dominant for the packing of cylindrical particles with a wide length distribution.