Surface fluctuations and the inertia effect in sandpiles

摘要

ew report both an experiment and numerical simulations on superficial fluctuations of a slowly driven granular system: a box filled with a certain number of lay- ers of glass beads is tilted very slowly up to the maximum angle of stability where an avalanche is produced. The av- alanche decreases the slope of the free surface of the pack- ing until a second critical angle is reached: the angle of repose. During the build up period many rearrangements occur on the free surface. The distribution function for the observed mass fluctuations follows a power-law behavior.