Computer-generated materials such as sphere packings are prototype structures that capture key attributes of real materials. While these structures sacrifice topological complexity, this sacrifice is offset by the ability to rapidly generate materials with arbitrary and widely varying properties. An added advantage is the ability to work with orders-of-magnitude larger systems than with voxelized images.

For sphere packings, a modified Delaunay tessellation (MDT) algorithm is used: the Delaunay tessellation maps out a network of interconnected pores. Certain tetrahedrons are then merged together to correct for local topology and to obtain a distribution of pore coordination numbers. The parameters describing MDT networks are exact, and the algorithm can be used on packings composed of hundreds of thousands of spheres.

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