Packing densification of binary mixtures of spheres and cubes subjected to 3D mechanical vibrations

Packing densification of binary mixtures of spheres and cubes, which are large cubes/small spheres and large spheres/small cubes packing systems, under 3D vibrations was studied physically. The influences of vibration conditions such as vibration time, frequency, amplitude, vibration intensity, volume fraction of large particles, and container size on the packing densification were systematically analyzed, and the optimal processing parameters were identified. And the proposed analytical model was validated as well. The results show that the influences of each operating parameter on the packing densification of different binary mixtures have similar trends; however, the maximum packing densities and corresponding optimal parameters are different. The good agreement between physical and analytical results proves the effectiveness of the proposed analytical model. The results provide meaningful information and references for the random dense packings of binary mixtures of cubes and spheres both in industry and in scientific research.