Packing of monosized spheres in a cylindrical container: models and approaches

Packing of monosized spheres in a cylindrical container of a fixed diameter is a frequently discussed subject in recent studies. It is motivated by the high applicability of these models, particularly by the advances in nanomaterial science and engineering, associated with the development of hierarchically ordered matters of specific structures and properties. Their features strongly depend on the arrangement and density of the filling atoms in the channels of a nanostructured porous matrix. A special interest is devoted to a dense random packing, which by its nature is not totally random when the spheres do not overlap. In this paper, related models of packing are classified basing on the space filling method, and the densities reached theoretically as well as experimentally for those classes are given. The effects produced by some parameters on the packing density and the main properties are analyzed. The experimental techniques and computer modeling approaches are summarized.