title: Particle kinematics in a dilute, three-dimensional, vibration-fluidized granular medium.
abstract: We report an experimental study of particle kinematics in a three-dimensional system of inelastic spheres fluidized by intense vibration. The motion of particles in the interior of the medium is tracked by high-speed video imaging, yielding a spatially resolved measurement of the velocity distribution. The distribution is wider than a Gaussian and broadens continuously with increasing volume fraction. The deviations from a Gaussian distribution for this boundary-driven system are different in sign and larger in magnitude than predictions for homogeneously driven systems. We also find correlations between velocity components which grow with increasing volume fraction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-3720, USA. hqwang@physics.umass.edu
authors.forename: Hong-Qiang
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Klebert
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Feitosa
authors.forename: Narayanan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Menon
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008863:Microspheres; D008956:Models, Chemical; D010316:Particle Size; D012996:Solutions / Q000737:chemistry*; D014732:Vibration
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids; D012996:Solutions