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Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 440 - 443 (1999)

Cluster Formation in a Granular Medium Fluidized by Vibrations in Low Gravity

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Éric Falcon1 *, Régis Wunenburger2, Pierre Évesque3, Stéphan Fauve1, Carole Chabot2, Yves Garrabos2, and Daniel Beysens4
1Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, École Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75 005 Paris, France
2Institut de Chimie et de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux, avenue du Docteur A. Schweitzer, 33 608 Pessac, France
3Laboratoire M.S.2M., École Centrale Paris, 92 295 Chatenay-Malabry Cedex, France
4D.R.F.M.C., Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique Grenoble, 38 054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France

Featured in Physics News Update Received 24 November 1998

We report an experimental study of a “gas” of inelastically colliding particles, excited by vibrations in low gravity. In the case of a dilute granular medium, we observe a spatially homogeneous gaslike regime, the pressure of which scales like the 3/2 power of the vibration velocity. When the density of the medium is increased, the spatially homogeneous fluidized state is no longer stable but displays the formation of a motionless dense cluster surrounded by low particle density regions.


©1999 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.440
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.440
PACS: 45.70.-n, 81.70.Ha, 83.10.Pp, 83.70.Fn

* Corresponding author.Email address: falcon@lps.ens.fr

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