Constant hole density on the area of a circle

Question

I need to create about 100 (small) holes in a distributor plate (hole diam = 0.5 mm; plate diameter = 100 mm). The sm. holes should be distributed in such a way that the density (hole/area) is nearly constant, i.e. that the distance distribution function is close to monodispersed as possible (distance distribution = distance between any two sm. hole centers). It appears to me that due to the circular shape of the plate, any given area that a single hole hole has to cover may not be a circle in itself, thus rendering the distance distribution function not as a mondispersed function but with some distribution. That's ok as long as there is a way to see the orientation of all the sm. holes and the influence of their locations on the distribution function (i.e. to make a judgment call).

Now, given the fact that the areas that each hole has to cover may not be a circle, leaves degrees of freedom that render a determined solution impossible, but this exercise is thought of as an approximation. I have seen circular patterns (of various number of holes of larger sizes) distributed within a circle which leaves space uncovered. This may serve as a starting point after which some manual adjustment can be made to lead to a decent distribution (for all practical purposes).

If someone has a ready-made algorithm to do this and is willing to share it, that'll be great.

Answer 1

Circle packings in a circle may be what you want, although your criteria for evaluating configurations may be slightly different. For example, those studying circle packings find these two configurations for N=13 equally good but you may prefer the configuration on the left. Also, you might have different conditions on the boundary. Anyway, I would start with these diagrams for N~100 from this collection.