Eur. Phys. J. E (2007) 22: 219-226
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/e2007-00001-6

Topical Issue on Dygram 2006

Instabilities in vertically vibrated fluid-grain systems

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

^* e-mail: p.j.king@nottingham.ac.uk

Received: 25 October 2006
Published online: 17 January 2007

Abstract

When a bed of fluid-immersed fine grains is exposed to vertical vibration a wealth of phenomena may be observed. At low frequencies a horizontal bed geometry is generally unstable and the bed breaks spatial symmetry, acquiring a tilt. At the same time it undergoes asymmetric granular convection. Fine binary mixtures may separate completely into layers or patterns of stripes. The separated regions may exhibit instabilities in which they undergo wave-like motion or exhibit quasi-periodic oscillations. We briefly review these and a number of related behaviours, identifying the physical mechanisms behind each. Finally, we discuss the magneto-vibratory separation of binary mixtures which results from exposing each component to a different effective gravity and describe the influence of a background fluid on this process.