Force mobilization and generalized isostaticity in jammed packings of fractional grains

Abstract

We show that in slowly generated two-dimensional packings of frictional spheres, a significant fraction of the friction forces lie at the Coulomb threshold—for small pressure p and friction coefficient μ, about half of the contacts. Interpreting these contacts as constrained leads to a generalized concept of isostaticity, which relates the maximal fraction of fully mobilized contacts and contact number. For p→0, our frictional packings approximately satisfy this relation over the full range of μ. This is in agreement with a previous conjecture that gently built packings should be marginal solids at jamming. In addition, the contact numbers and packing densities scale with both p and μ.