Structure factors of polydisperse systems of hard spheres: A comparison of Monte Carlo simulations and Percus-Yevick theory

Abstract

We present Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the structure factors of polydisperse hard-sphere fluids. The simulations were carried out for 108 particles and packing fractions up to φ=0.5. The size distribution of the particles was chosen randomly from a log-normal distribution. The MC results are compared with predictions obtained using Percus-Yevick approximation. It is found that for all but the highest densities and the highest polydispersities studied, the Percus-Yevick approximation provides a satisfactory description of the MC data. © 1986 American Institute of Physics.