Fluidization of granular media wetted by liquid 4He.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
We explore experimentally the fluidization of vertically agitated polymethylmethacrylate spheres wetted by liquid 4He . By controlling the temperature around the lambda point, we change the properties of the wetting liquid from a normal fluid (helium I) to a superfluid (helium II). For wetting by helium I, the critical acceleration for fluidization (Gamma_{c}) shows a steep increase close to the saturation of the vapor pressure in the sample cell. For helium II wetting, Gamma_{c} starts to increase at about 75% saturation, indicating that capillary bridges are enhanced by the superflow of the unsaturated helium film. Above saturation, Gamma_{c} enters a plateau regime where the capillary force between particles is independent of the bridge volume. The plateau value is found to vary with temperature and shows a peak at 2.1K , which we attribute to the influence of the specific heat of liquid helium.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Huang, K; Sohaili, M; Schröter, M; Herminghaus, S
Published Date
- January 27, 2009
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 79 / 1 Pt 1
Start / End Page
- 010301 -
PubMed ID
- 19256990
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1550-2376
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 1539-3755
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1103/physreve.79.010301
Language
- eng