Bottom pressure scaling of vibro-fluidized granular matter

Vibrated granular beds show various interesting phenomena such as convection, segregation, and so on. However, its fundamental physical properties (e.g., internal pressure structure) have not yet been understood well. Thus, in this study, the bottom wall pressure in a vertically vibrated granular column is experimentally measured and used to reveal the nature of granular fluidization. The scaling method allows us to elucidate the fluidization (softening) degree of a vibrated granular column. The peak value of the bottom pressure p(m) is scaled as (p(m) - p(J))/p(J) similar to (root dg/omega H)(1/4)Gamma, where p(J), d, g, omega, H, and Gamma are the Janssen pressure, grain diameter, gravitational acceleration, angular frequency, height of the column, and dimensionless vibrational acceleration, respectively. This scaling implies that the pressure of vibrated granular matter is quite different from the classical pressure forms: static and dynamic pressures. This scaling represents the importance of geometric factors for discussing the behavior of vibro-fluidized granular matter. The scaling is also useful to evaluate the dissipation degree in vibro-fluidized granular matter.