Phase diagram of vertically vibrated dense suspensions

When a hole is created in a layer of a dense, vertically vibrated suspension, phenomena are known to occur that defy the natural tendency of gravity to close the hole. Here, an overview is presented of the different patterns that we observed in a variety of dense particulate suspensions. Subsequently, we relate the occurrence of these patterns to the system parameters, namely, the layer thickness, the particle concentration, and the shaking parameters. Special attention is given to the geometric properties of the particles in the various suspensions such as shape and particle size distribution. We observe these properties to be crucial for selecting the dynamics of the vibrated suspension.