  Equilibrium shapes of coalesced pendular bridges in a static assembly of
spherical beads are computed by numerical minimization of the interfacial
energy. Our present study focuses on generic bead configurations involving
three beads, one of which is in contact to the two others while there is a gap
of variable size between the latter. In agreement with previous experimental
studies, we find interfacial `trimer' morphologies consisting of three
coalesced pendular bridges, and `dimers' of two coalesced bridges. In a certain
range of the gap opening we observe a bistability between the dimer and trimer
morphology during shrinking and growth. The magnitude of the corresponding
capillary forces in presence of a trimer or dimer depends, besides the gap
opening only on the volume or Laplace pressure of liquid. For a given Laplace
pressure, the capillary forces in presence of a trimer are slightly larger than
the force of a single bridges at the same gap opening, which could explain the
shallow maximum and plateau of the capillary cohesion of a wetting liquid for
saturations in the funicular regime.
