Jamming Density and Volume‐Potential of a Bi‐Dispersed Granular System

Jamming is the transition from a fluid‐like state to a solid‐like state of a packing system. Recent studies have shown that jamming transition depends upon many factors: particle shape, friction/cohesion between particles, particle size dispersity, the stress of the packing, etc. This study aims to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring the jamming density of soil with strong dispersity. In analogous to Gibbs excess energy, we introduce excess volume‐potentials for each species. We then proposed a mathematical model to quantitatively compute the jamming density based on the second law of equilibrium in thermodynamics. This approach is validated using experimental results on glass beads and on silty sand. It is hoped that this study will provide to a deeper understanding of the link between jamming density, packing dispersity and the second law of thermodynamics.