Air Cavities in a Vibrated Bed of Visco-Elastic Glass Balls

Large scale, three dimensional computer simulations of a dense aggregative bed were performed to provide insight into the physics behind bubble formation in vertically vibrated granular materials in a shaker. As the shaker acceleration exceeds a critical value, turbulent fluctuations proportional to the particle size were produced to promote fractures at the interface between the gas and particles suspended in the gas near the bottom of the shaker. As the wave fronts pass, the solid fractures took the form of sharply defined regions of very low solids fraction (air cavities) that rose through the bed with a speed that depends on their size. The nucleation of bubbles is found to be of the heterogeneous type.