MRI Investigations of Particle Motion within a Three-Dimensional Vibro-Fluidized Granular Bed

TL;DR

This study employs ultra-fast MRI techniques to analyze particle velocity and density distributions in a vibrating granular bed, revealing transient effects and detailed velocity profiles within the system.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel MRI pulse sequence for high-resolution, phase-resolved measurement of particle motion in a vibro-fluidized granular bed.

Findings

Identification of transient velocity effects during impact phase

Detailed phase-resolved velocity distributions

Quantitative velocity propagators as a function of height

Abstract

The unique ability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to provide spatial and temporal information from optically opaque systems, in three dimensions, make it an ideal tool to study the internal motion of rapid granular flows. This paper will focus on the use of ultra-fast velocity compensated MRI measurements to study particle velocity and density distributions in a granular gas, produced by vibrating vertically a bed of mustard seeds at 40 Hz. Specifically, a velocity compensated, double spin-echo, triggered, one-dimensional MRI profiling pulse sequence was developed. This gives an MRI temporal resolution of approximately 2 ms and also minimises MRI velocity artefacts. 12 phase measurements per vibration cycle were used. The data can be used to extract values of the mustard seed average velocity and velocity propagators (probability distributions functions) as a function of the phase of the vibration cycle and vertical height within the cell. The data show strong transient effects during the impact phase of the vibration. A detailed discussion of the temporal passage of the individual phase resolved, height resolved velocity distributions, along with seed velocity propagators at a fix height from the vibrating base is presented.