Abstract
In order to study the dynamical behavior and the handling properties of granular materials under microgravity conditions, ESA is developing the VIP-Gran instrument whose multiple functionalities allow for the study of Vibration Induced Phenomena in Granular media in low gravity. Here, we present an overview of VIP-Gran’s evolution, from the original idea to the latest encouraging and fascinating results. At first, we give a description of the instrument and the different investigated topics. Then, we present numerical simulations that we performed in order to prepare our experiments and tackle fundamental questions concerning granular gases. Finally, we give an insight on the first experimental results from parabolic flight campaigns and confront them with preliminary works and theoretical models.
Highlights
A granular gas is a paradigm for dissipative systems exhibiting spectacular behaviors such as inelastic collapse or clustering [1, 2]
The latter structures raise fundamental questions regarding their possible relations to thermodynamics principles [3]
The European Space Agency formed a Topical Team (TT) of about 20 people and started the development of VIP-Gran (Vibration Induced Phenomena in Granular media) [5], an instrument designed for the study of the dynamics and the statistical mechanics of an ensemble of particles that interact through dissipative collisions
Summary
A granular gas is a paradigm for dissipative systems exhibiting spectacular behaviors such as inelastic collapse or clustering [1, 2]. The latter structures raise fundamental questions regarding their possible relations to thermodynamics principles [3]. The European Space Agency formed a Topical Team (TT) of about 20 people and started the development of VIP-Gran (Vibration Induced Phenomena in Granular media) [5], an instrument designed for the study of the dynamics and the statistical mechanics of an ensemble of particles that interact through dissipative collisions. After a brief description of the instrument, we present the numerical simulations that we performed in order to prepare the experiments and give an insight on the first experimental results
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