Vibration driven random walk in a Chladni experiment

Drifting of sand particles bouncing on a vibrating membrane of a Chladni experiment is characterized statistically. Records of trajectories reveal that bounces are circularly distributed and random. The mean length of their horizontal displacement is approximately proportional to the vibration amplitude above the critical level and amounts about one fourth of the corresponding bounce height. For the description of horizontal drifting of particles a model of vibration driven random walk is proposed that yields a good agreement between experimental and numerically simulated data. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.