Convection in a fully immersed granular slurry.

Abstract

Using vertical vibrations, we have induced convection in a granular system completely immersed in fluid inside a cylindrical container. Convection is established in a single convection roll, which carries the material upward in the center and downward along the side walls of the container. We measure the rise times of tracer particles embedded in the medium at various depths along the central axis of the system. By fitting this data to an appropriate functional form, we obtain information on the depth dependence of convection velocity. Significant differences are found in the frequency and acceleration amplitude dependence of convection between wet and otherwise identical dry systems. In addition, we find that a power-law form provides a better fit to our data than the logarithmic form used in dry systems.