Porosity for the penetrable-concentric-shell model of two-phase disordered media: Computer simulation results

Abstract

Computer-simulation results are reported for the porosity of a model of two-phase random media composed of identical D-dimensional spheres (D = 2 or 3) distributed with an arbitrary degree of impenetrability λ, 0≤λ≤1; λ = 0 corresponding to randomly centered or "fully penetrable" particles and λ = 1 corresponding to totally impenetrable particles. We specifically consider the D-dimensional penetrable-concentric-shell model in which each sphere of diameter σ is composed of a mutually impenetrable core of diameter λσ, encompassed by a perfectly penetrable concentric shell of thickness (1 - λ)σ/2. We develop two independent techniques to sample for the porosity. Simulation results agree with known exact results for the extreme limits of λ = 0 and λ = 1 up to three significant figures. The results for intermediate λ are new and compare favorably with approximate analytical expressions obtained by Rikvold and Stell. © 1988 American Institute of Physics.