Multi-modal dense sphere packing algorithm for the simulation of thermites

This work presents a packing algorithm in two and three dimensions for the simulation of multi-modal dense sphere packing in finite volumes and its application to the Al-CuO-thermite. We employ a variant of the event-driven dense packing algorithm by Lubachevsky, which simulates the growth of randomly distributed particles and their Brownian motion inside a finite, non-periodic geometry until a dense packing is reached. We apply this algorithm to study the impact of the particle size ratio on the stoichiometric Al-CuO-mixture. To this end, we simulate multiple two-dimensional dense packings for the same set of parameters and statistically evaluate the filling fraction and particle distances and compare these results to calculations in three dimensions.