We propose a method to characterize the geometrical texture of a granular packing at the particle scale including the steric hindrance effect. This method is based on the assumption of a maximum directional disorder (statistical entropy) compatible with both the strain-induced anisotropy of the contact network and steric exclusions. We show that the predicted statistics for the local configurations are in fairly good agreement with our numerical data.

• Received 12 March 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.66.041305