Coefficient of restitution dependence of intruder rise time in two-dimensional Brazil-nut effect

Abstract

Brazil-Nut Effect (BNE) is a granular material phenomenon, where larger grains (usually known as intruder) rise to the top when the granular system vibrated. We observe a single intruder rise time of BNE phenomenon in a two-dimensional molecular dynamics simulation of hard spheres collision scheme. Some experiments have shown that some granular properties, such as size and density ratio, play an important role to determine the rise time. However, other property, such as coefficients of restitution, is considered not to have a measurable impact. We explore the intruder inelasticity dependence of the rise time by varying its coefficient of restitution. We found that the intruder rise time tends to be flat for relatively high coefficient of restitution and increases exponentially below a certain deflecting point for low coefficient of restitution. This holds for specific mass ratio.