Huge fluctuations in weight measurements at the bottom of a two-dimensional vertical sheet of grains.
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.
Gilles
Bruno
B
Unité 556, INSERM, Université Lyon I, 151 cours Albert Thomas, 69424 Lyon CEDEX 03, France.
Lévêque
Emmanuel
E
Laroche
Claude
C
Coste
Christophe
C