Abstract
Horizontal vibration of a granular material is studied experimentally and by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We focus on the transition from a more solidlike behavior of the granulate, which is obtained at small driving velocities, to a more fluidlike behavior for higher velocities. We present two different order parameters suitable to characterize the transition, namely the granular temperature and the pair distribution function. When using different frequencies and amplitudes of the vibration, we find that the transition point from the solid to the fluid phase scales with , whereas the granular temperature scales as .
- Received 13 September 1996
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.833
©1997 American Physical Society