Related papers: Understanding the Chain Fountain
We investigate the gravity driven rapid failure of a granular step composed of non-cohesive steel beads. The step is initially held together with electromagnets, and released when the current is switched off. We visualize the surface and…
Fluid flows around an obstacle generate vortices which, in turn, generate lift forces on the obstacle. Therefore, even in a perfectly symmetric framework equilibrium positions may be asymmetric. We show that this is not the case for a…
A Brownian pump of particles in an asymmetric finite tube is investigated in the presence of an unbiased external force. The pumping system is bounded by two particle reservoirs. It is found that the particles can be pumped through the tube…
We investigate the formation of fingered flow in dry granular media under simulated rainfall using a quasi-2D experimental set-up composed of a random close packing of mono-disperse glass beads. Using controlled experiments, we analyze the…
In the present paper we revisit, theoretical and experimentally, the fall of a folded U-chain and of a pile-chain. The model calculation implies the division of the whole system into two subsystems of variable mass, allowing to explore the…
A theoretical study of the emergence of helices in the wake of precipitation fronts is presented. The precipitation dynamics is described by the Cahn-Hilliard equation and the fronts are obtained by quenching the system into a linearly…
Soap bubbles can be easily generated by varies methods, while their formation process is complicated and still worth study. A model about the bubble formation process was proposed in Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 077801 recently, and it was…
Motivated by recent experiments, we theoretically analyze the flow past an obstacle of a one-dimensional "quantum fluid of light" which is resonantly driven, and exhibits bistability. The flow is found to abruptly change several times when…
The hourglass is one of the apparatuses familiar to everyone, but reveals intriguing behaviors peculiar to granular materials, and many issues are remained to be explored. In this study, we examined the dynamics of falling sand in a special…
The linear stability analysis of the Faraday instability on a viscous ferrofluid in a horizontal magnetic field is performed. Strong dipole-dipole interactions lead to the formation of chains elongated in the field direction. The formation…
We analyse the scattering of sine-Gordon breathers on a square potential well. We show that the scattering process depends not only on the vibration frequency of the breather and its incoming speed but also on its phase as well as the depth…
We study the avalanche dynamics of a pile of micrometer-sized silica grains in water-filled microfluidic drums. Contrary to what is expected for classical granular materials, avalanches do not stop at a finite angle of repose. After a first…
Fluidisation is the process by which the weight of a bed of particles is supported by a gas flow passing through it from below. When fluidised materials flow down an incline, the dynamics of the motion differ from their non-fluidised…
We present experimental results of the jamming of non-cohesive particles discharged from a flat bottomed silo subjected to vertical vibration. When the exit orifice is only a few grain diameter wide, the flow can be arrested due to the…
We report a new type of drop instability, where the density difference between the drop and the solvent is negative. We show that the drop falls inside the solvent down to a minimum height, then fragmentation takes place and secondary…
We study experimentally the dynamics of one and two ball-chains settling under gravity in a very viscous fluid at a Reynolds number much smaller than unity. We demonstrate that single ball-chains in most cases do not tend to be planar and…
We consider the growth of a vicinal crystal surface in the presence of a step-edge barrier. For any value of the barrier strength, measured by the length l_es, nucleation of islands on terraces is always able to destroy asymptotically…
Patterns of vortex ripples form when a sand bed is subjected to an oscillatory fluid flow. Here we describe experiments on the response of regular vortex ripple patterns to sudden changes of the driving amplitude a or frequency f. A…
We examine fluctuations of vorticity excited by an external random force in two-dimensional fluid in the presence of a strong external shear flow. The problem is motivated by the analysis of big coherent vortices appearing as a consequence…
In this paper we review the theory of the ``falling chimney'', which deals with the breaking in mid-air of tall structures, when they fall to the ground. We show that these ruptures can be caused by either shear forces, typically developing…