We describe a series of experiments and computer simulations on vibrated granular media in a geometry chosen to eliminate gravitationally induced settling. The system consists of a collection of identical spherical particles on a horizontal plate vibrating vertically, with or without a confining lid. Previously reported results are reviewed, including the observation of homogeneous, disordered liquid-like states, an instability to a 'collapse' of motionless spheres on a perfect hexagonal lattice, and a fluctuating, hexagonally ordered state. In the presence of a confining lid we see a variety of solid phases at high densities and relatively high vibration amplitudes, several of which are reported for the first time in this article. The phase behavior of the system is closely related to that observed in confined hard-sphere colloidal suspensions in equilibrium, but with modifications due to the effects of the forcing and dissipation. We also review measurements of velocity distributions, which range from Maxwellian to strongly non-Maxwellian depending on the experimental parameter values. We describe measurements of spatial velocity correlations that show a clear dependence on the mechanism of energy injection. We also report new measurements of the velocity autocorrelation function in the granular layer and show that increased inelasticity leads to enhanced particle selfdiffusion.
We report the observation of the homogenous nucleation of crystals in a dense layer of steel spheres confined between two horizontal plates vibrated vertically. Above a critical vibration amplitude, two-layer crystals with square symmetry were found to coexist in steady state with a surrounding granular liquid. By analogy to equilibrium hard-sphere systems, the phase behavior may be explained through entropy maximization. However, dramatic nonequilibrium effects are present, including a significant difference in the granular temperatures of the two phases.
We demonstrate the effect of the depletion force in experiments and simulations of vertically vibrated mixtures of large and small steel spheres. The system exhibits size segregation and a large increase in the pair correlation function of the large spheres for short distances that can be accurately described using a combination of the depletion potential derived for equilibrium colloidal systems and a Boltzmann factor. The Boltzmann factor defines an effective temperature for the system, which we compare to other measures of temperature.
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