title: Influence of a reduced gravity on the volume fraction of a monolayer of spherical grains.
abstract: Centrifuge force is used to study granular materials in low gravity conditions. We consider a monolayer of noncohesive spherical grains placed on a plate. Reduced gravity conditions can be simulated in the plane by tilting or by rotating the plate. We compare both approaches experimentally. The volume fraction is found to increase with the apparent gravity and saturates. A model based on the exponential distribution of the Voronoi cell areas has been built and is in excellent agreement with the experimental data by extrapolating the fits of the data. Moreover, numerical simulations exhibit that more arches can be maintained at low apparent gravities than at high.
authors.affiliation: GRASP, Physics Department, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dorbolo
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Scheller
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ludewig
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lumay
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vandewalle