Related papers: Mobility in immersed granular materials upon cycli…
We investigate the drag forces acting on large objects moving through a granular packing immersed in water. In this aim, we conducted uplift experiments involving pulling out horizontal plates at a prescribed velocity vertically. During…
Like in liquids, objects moving in granular materials experience a drag force. We investigate here whether and how the object acceleration affect this drag force. The study is based on simulations of a canonical drag test, which involves…
Relative motion between soft wet solids arises in a number of applications in natural and artificial settings, and invariably couples elastic deformation and fluid flow. We explore this in a minimal setting by considering a fluid-immersed…
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 study the compaction and mobility properties of a dense granular material under weak random vibration. By putting in direct contact millimetric glass beads with piezoelectric transducers we manage to inject energy to the system in a…
The sticking of a soft polystyrene colloidal particle to a planar glass plate was studied by a microrheological technique using an optical tweezer to trap the particle and a piezoelectric-stage to position the plate and to sinusoidally…
Observing and understanding the movement of an intruder through opaque dense suspensions such as quicksand remains a practical and conceptual challenge. Here we use an ultrasonic probe to investigate the dynamics of a steel ball sinking in…
Large objects, immersed in a homogeneous granular system, migrate when subjected to vibrations. Under certain conditions large heavy objects rise and similar light ones sink to the bottom. This is called reverse buoyancy. We report an…
Confining glassy polymer into films can substantially modify their local and film-averaged properties. We present a lattice model of film geometry with void-mediated facilitation behaviors but free from any elasticity effect. We analyze the…
We present experimental results on slow flow properties of a granular assembly confined in a vertical column and driven upwards at a constant velocity V. For monodisperse assemblies this study evidences at low velocities ($1<V<100 \mu m/s$)…
The motion of water filled bottles is studied when it is thrown into the air and falls back to the floor, including the possibilities of an upright landing or rolling down before it finally reaches static state. When dealing with the…
We investigate the conditions leading to large drag force fluctuations in granular materials. The study is based on a set of experimental drag tests, which involve pulling a plate vertically through a cohesionless granular material. In…
We report an experimental study of liquid drops moving against gravity, when placed on a vertically vibrating inclined plate, which is partially wetted by the drop. The frequency of vibrations ranges from 30 to 200 Hz, and, above a…
Lubrication flows between two solid surfaces can be found in a variety of biological and engineering settings. In many of these systems, the lubricant exhibits viscoelastic properties, which modify the associated lubrication forces. Here,…
Confined granular fluids, placed in a shallow box that is vibrated vertically, can achieve homogeneous stationary states thanks to energy injection mechanisms that take place throughout the system. These states can be stable even at high…
We report an experimental investigation of the caging motion in a uniformly heated granular fluid, for a wide range of filling fractions, $\phi$. At low $\phi$ the classic diffusive behavior of a fluid is observed. However, as $\phi$ is…
We show that a scaling approach successfully characterizes clustering and intermittency in space and time, in systems of noninteracting particles driven by fluctuating surfaces. We study both the steady state and the approach to it, for…
Several experiments on molecular and metallic glasses have shown that the ability of vapor deposition to produce ultrastable glasses is correlated with their structural and thermodynamic properties. Here we investigate the vapor deposition…
We experimentally investigate the fluidization of a granular material subject to mechanical vibrations by monitoring the angular velocity of a vane suspended in the medium and driven by an external motor. On increasing the frequency we…
We consider the stationary state of a fluid comprised of inelastic hard spheres or disks under the influence of a random, momentum-conserving external force. Starting from the microscopic description of the dynamics, we derive a nonlinear…