Experimental and Computational Study of the Effect of the System Size on Rough Surfaces Formed by Sedimenting Particles in Quasi-Two-Dimensions

TL;DR

This study investigates how the size of the system influences the roughness characteristics of surfaces formed by sedimenting particles in a quasi-two-dimensional setup, using both experimental and computational approaches.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the effect of system size on surface roughness exponents, highlighting differences between experimental observations and computational simulations.

Findings

Experimental surfaces exhibit two roughness exponents with a crossover length.

Computational results show a single roughness exponent without crossover.

The roughness exponent remains robust against changes in cell gap in experiments.

Abstract

The roughness exponent of surfaces obtained by dispersing silica spheres into a quasi-two-dimensional cell is examined using experimental and computational methods. The cell consists of two glass plates separated by a gap, which is comparable in size to the diameter of the beads. We have studied the effect of changing the gap between the plates to a limit of about twice the diameter of the beads. If the conventional scaling analysis is performed, the roughness exponent is found to be robust against changes in the gap between the plates. The surfaces formed have two roughness exponents in two length scales, which have a crossover length about 1 cm.; however, the computational results do not show the same crossover behavior. The single exponent obtained from the simulations stays between the two roughness exponents obtained in the experiments.