U.S.-Chile Cooperative Research: Pattern Formation in Vertically Oscillated Granular Materials

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9415709 Swinney This Americas Program award will fund a collaborative research project between dr. Harry Swinney, University of Texas, Austin, and Dr. Francisco Melo, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, on the physics of granular flow. The researchers will conduct experiments on the formation of two- dimensional spatial patterns in vertically oscillated granular materials. The formation and evolution of the patterns will be studied using digital imaging techniques and analyses will examine the effects of energy dissipation, air pressure, particle size, and forcing on the collective motion . The goal of the research is to develop new insights towards a full understanding of the underlying mechanism in the formation of the spatial patterns in these granular materials. Granular materials play an important role in industries such as mining , agriculture, and construction, yet an understanding of the fundamental processes governing the collective behavior of these materials is lacking. The proposed collaborative research should make a fundamental contribution to the understanding of the physics of granular flow, and should help in understanding the role of parameters that are varied in industrial processes involving the granular flow., ***