Huge Fluctuations in Weight Measurements at the Bottom of a Two-Dimensional Vertical Sheet of Grains

Bruno Gilles (1, 2) , Emmanuel Lévêque (3) , Claude Laroche (3) , Christophe Coste (4)

1 SIMaP - Science et Ingénierie des Matériaux et Procédés
2 Applications des ultrasons à la thérapie
3 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon
4 MSC - Matière et Systèmes Complexes

Weight measurements at the bottom of a quasi-2D vertical sheet of static cohesionless grains are carried out. The grains are held between two coaxial cylinders. This peculiar setup allows us to set either periodic or fixed lateral boundary conditions. Huge relative fluctuations in weight measurements appear in case of fixed lateral walls. This may be related to some indetermination in the mobilization state of friction forces on lateral walls. This argument would hold for any piling, but would lead to huge fluctuations in 2D systems only, because of averaging effects in 3D.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Mechanics [physics]; Solid mechanics [physics.class-ph]

Bruno Gilles, Emmanuel Lévêque, Claude Laroche, Christophe Coste. Huge Fluctuations in Weight Measurements at the Bottom of a Two-Dimensional Vertical Sheet of Grains. Physical Review Letters, 2004, 92 (20), pp.204301. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.204301⟩. ⟨hal-01406721⟩