An instrument for studying granular media in low-gravity
environment
S. Aumaître,1, 2 R. P. Behringer,3
A. Cazaubiel,4 E. Clément,5 J.
Crassous,6 D. J. Durian,7 E. Falcon,4,
a)
S. Fauve,8 D. Fischer,9 A.
Garcimartin,10 Y. Garrabos,11 M. Hou,12
X. Jia,13 C. Lecoutre,11 S. Luding,14
D. Maza,10 M. Noirhomme,15 E. Opsomer,15,
b) F. Palencia,11 T. Pöschel,16
J. Schockmel,15 M. Sperl,17
R. Stannarius,9 N. Vandewalle,15, c) and
P. Yu14
1SPEC, DSM, CEA-Saclay, CNRS URA
2464, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
2Laboratoire de Physique, ENS Lyon, UMR-CNRS 5672,
F-69007 Lyon, France
3Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC
27708-0305, USA
4Université Paris Diderot, SPC, MSC, UMR 7057 CNRS,
F-75013 Paris, France
5PMMH, ESPCI, UMR 7636 CNRS, F-75005 Paris, France
6Université Rennes 1, IPR, UMR 6251 CNRS, F-35042
Rennes, France
7University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA
19104-6396, USA
8Ecole Normale Supérieure, LPS, CNRS, UMR 8550,
F-75005, Paris, France
9IEP, Otto von Guericke Universität, D-39106
Magdeburg, Germany
10DFMA, Universidad de Navarra, E-31080 Pamplona, Spain
11CNRS, ICMCB, Universite de Bordeaux, UMR 5026,
F-33600 Pessac, France
12Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100190, China
13Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL, CNRS, F-75005
Paris, France
14MSM, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, The
Netherlands
15GRASP, Institute of Physics B5a, University of
Liege, B-4000 Liege, Belgium
16Friedrich-Alexander Universitat, IMS, D-91052
Erlangen, Germany
17Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, DLR,
D-51170 Köln, Germany
a)E-mail: eric.falcon@univ-paris-diderot.fr b)E-mail:
eric.opsomer@uliege.be c)E-mail: nvandewalle@uliege.be
Reference: Review
of Scientific Instruments 89, 075103 (2018)
Abstract: A new experimental facility
has been designed and constructed to study driven granular media
in a low-gravity environment. This versatile instrument, fully
automatized, with a modular design based on several
interchangeable experimental cells, allows us to investigate
research topics ranging from dilute to dense regimes of granular
media such as granular gas, segregation, convection, sound
propagation, jamming, and rheology—all without the disturbance
by gravitational stresses active on Earth. Here, we present the
main parameters, protocols, and performance characteristics of
the instrument. The current scientific objectives are then
briefly described and, as a proof of concept, some first
selected results obtained in low gravity during parabolic flight
campaigns are presented.
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