Packing Problems in Soft Matter Physics: Fundamentals and Applications

by Ho-Kei Chan (Editor), Stefan Hutzler (Editor), Adil Mughal (Editor), Corey S O'Hern (Editor), Yujie Wang (Editor)

Overview

Packing problems, which are concerned with optimal arrangements of objects in space, are cross-disciplinary in nature and are encountered in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and architecture. Such problems form a subject of interest in its own right, providing intriguing intellectual challenges, but are also at the heart of many material properties of condensed matter. In view of this, a series of international conferences on packing problems was launched in 2012 to provide a platform for soft-matter researchers to disseminate their findings. To continue the spirit of this conference series, this international community of researchers has also been invited to contribute reviews of their research to this book. Covering topics on models of ordered and disordered packings, mechanical behaviour of packings, and applications in soft matter and biology, this book provides a broad and authoritative overview of current research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781837671465
Publisher:	RSC
Publication date:	08/27/2025
Series:	Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Series , #27
Pages:	606
Product dimensions:	6.15(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Ho-Kei Chan, an Associate Professor of Physics at the Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), is an expert in packing problems of confined systems. He has recently published (with coauthor Jens Winkelmann) the monograph ‘Columnar Structures of Spheres: Fundamentals and Applications’.

Stefan Hutzler, an Associate Professor of Physics and a Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, is an expert in foam physics and packing problems, known also for his publication (with coauthor Denis Weaire) of the 1999 monograph ‘The Physics of Foams’.

Adil Mughal, a Lecturer of Mathematics at Aberystwyth University, is a theoretical physicist and an expert in packing problems and the effects of geometry and topology in soft matter and biology.

Corey O'Hern, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Physics, and Applied Physics at Yale Universityand an APS Fellow, is an expert in the statistical mechanics of non-equilibrium systems and also glass- and jamming-transitions of soft-matter systems.

Yujie Wang, a Professor of Physics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is an expert in the non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of granular materials and in their dynamics and amorphous packings. He is renowned for his experimental investigations of granular systems via x-ray tomography.

Denis Weaire FRS, an Emeritus Professor of Physics at Trinity College Dublin, is a leader in foam physics and is renowned for his discovery (with Robert Phelan) of a division of space into cells with a surface area less than that proposed by Lord Kelvin.

Table of Contents

• A Brief Overview of Packing Problems
• Packings of Spheres in Cylindrical Confinement
• Packings of Shape-anisotropic Particles in Quasi-1D Confinement
• Packing by Phyllotactic Planforms on Disks
• Symmetric Packings of Curvilinear Cylinders
• Amorphous Packings of Spheres
• Random Packings of Ellipsoidal Particles and Their Local Packing Properties
• Hyperuniform Quasi-long-range Correlations in Maximally Random Jammed Hard-particle Packings
• Deformable Particles: Modelling and Applications
• Packing Problems in Foams
• On the Role of Friction and Particle Size Distribution in Granular Packings
• On Transitions in Granular Packings Exposed to Compression
• Advances in Imaging of Granular Matter
• A Packing Perspective on the Glass-forming Ability of Particle-based Materials
• Seek "Order" Out of Disorder: An Exploration of the Structure of Amorphous Matter
• Machine-learning Methods for Amorphous Packings
• Packings of Charged Spheres
• Packings of Colloids for Optics and Wettability
• Self-assembly and Packings of Quasi-two-dimensional Suspensions of Colloidal Ellipsoids
• Packings of Soft Spheres Self-assembled from Block Copolymers
• Fractal Packings of Nanomaterials