Stripe formation in horizontally oscillating granular suspensions

TL;DR

This experimental study investigates how granular suspensions form stripe patterns under horizontal oscillation, revealing layered structures, coarsening dynamics, and steady-state distributions, supported by simulations.

Contribution

It provides new insights into pattern formation mechanisms in oscillating granular suspensions through combined experiments and simulations.

Findings

Stripe patterns emerge within specific oscillation parameters.

Layered structures develop perpendicular to vibration direction.

Stripe width distribution reaches a steady-state approximated by a Poisson distribution.

Abstract

We present the results of an experimental study of pattern formation in horizontally oscillating granular suspensions. Starting from a homogeneous state, the suspension turns into a striped pattern within a specific range of frequencies and amplitudes of oscillation. We observe an initial development of layered structures perpendicular to the vibration direction and a gradual coarsening of the stripes. However, both processes gradually slow down and eventually saturate. The probability distribution of the stripe width approaches a nonmonotonic steady-state form which can be approximated by a Poisson distribution. We observe similar structures in MD simulations of soft spherical particles coupled to the motion of the surrounding fluid.