Abstract:

In order to recognize the motion rules of an object on granular medium, a granular medium sloping flume of adjustable width was built to observe the moving behaviors of spheres on a granular medium by high speed camera. The relations between the moving distance of the  sphere and the flume width/sphere diameter ratio were respectively studied with different density of sphere and different size of granular medium. It was  found that the moving distance decreased with the flume width/sphere diameter ratio, and the boundary effect degree decreased with the flume width/sphere diameter ratio exponentially, and the density of the  sphere affected the moving distance in three regions, and there were a certain relationship between the  effective friction coefficient and the  moving distance of the sphere.

Key words: granular medium; flume width/sphere diameter ratio; effective friction coefficient