On the distribution of elastic forces in disordered structures and materials. I. Computer simulation

Randomly structured materials and structures develop distributed internal forces when subjected to external loadings. Using granular packings, and random honeycombs and open–cell foams as prototypic examples, computer simulations were carried out to elucidate the statistical distribution of the internal forces in randomly structured materials. It was found that the sharpness of the force distribution depends critically on the degree of randomness of the structure. In general, the force distributions in these exemplary systems are found to range from the Maxwell–Boltzmann form to a sharply peaked Gaussian form. The results presented here form the basis for the development of a statistical mechanics theory to be presented elsewhere as part II.