2004/04/26 by M. B. Stone, R. Barry, D. P. Bernstein +4 · 1 citation
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Landslides and related hazards #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.70.041301
45 page pdf document (double spaced), 17 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. E. Brief version of paper appears in Nature, Vol 427, pa 503 (2004)
arxiv created 2004/04/26 · openalex publication_date 2004/10/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a series of measurements examining the penetration force required to push a flat plate vertically through a dense granular medium, focusing in particular on the effects of the bottom boundary of the vessel containing the medium. Our data demonstrate that the penetration force near the bottom is strongly affected by the surface properties of the bottom boundary, even many grain diameters above the bottom. Furthermore, the data indicate an intrinsic length scale for the interaction of the penetrating plate with the vessel bottom via the medium. This length scale, which corresponds to the extent of local jamming induced by the penetrating plate, has a square root dependence both upon the plate radius and the ambient granular stress near the bottom boundary, but it is independent of penetration velocity and grain diameter.