An immersed granular bed can be destabilized using local thermal forcing and induced buoyant force. The experimental apparatus consists of a rectangular PMMA box locally heated from below. The granular material (polystyrene spheres) is initially placed into the box and slowly settles down.
The destabilization is evidenced by the triggering and establishment of a dense granular plume.
Varying the granular layer height, time series of the free layer surface are extracted, to compute the underlying volume of the granular layer. The initial interface deformation, the plume emission, the final craterization and the cave formation are observed, simulated using continuous media approach & analyzed.
See
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUxOmE_2WDs
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtzR5lBkacw&t=21s
Participants
Eric Herbert, Cyprien Morize (FAST), Aurélie Louis–Napoléon, Pierre Jop (SVI), Christophe Goupil, Edouard Kaminski (IPGP) and Yves D’Angelo.