title: Role of defects in the onset of wall-induced granular convection.
abstract: We investigate the onset of wall-induced convection in vertically vibrated granular matter by means of experiments and two-dimensional computer simulations. In both simulations and experiments we find that the wall-induced convection occurs inside the bouncing bed region of the parameter space, in which the granular bed behaves like a bouncing ball. A good agreement between experiments and simulations is found for the peak vibration acceleration at which convection starts. By comparing the results of simulations initialized with and without defects, we find that the onset of convection occurs at lower vibration strengths in the presence of defects. Furthermore, we find that the convection of granular particles initialized in a perfect hexagonal lattice is related to the nucleation of defects and the process is described by an Arrhenius law.
authors: Theoretische Physik II, Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, D-95447 Bayreuth, Germany.|Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom.
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Fortini
authors: Experimentalphysik V, Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, D-95447 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Huang