Granular Materials studied with SESANS

Extracting micro-structural and rotational information in granular materials such as: sand-piles, coffee beans, planetary rings, powders etc. is a challenging task. The limits are in general the opacity of the sample and the degree of complexity seen in granular systems. Structure and dynamics in granular matter is not only of fundamental importance, where the sandpile has become the physicist’s trendy “out of equilibrium model”, but also of great practical consequence in commercially related applications. Therefore more experiments and new techniques are needed and much sought after.

Using SESANS we determined the fractal structure of loose and compressed powders.  With anisotropic particles we found anisotropic regions.

1.        Structure, anisotropy and fractals in compressed cohesive powders, R. Andersson, W.G. Bouwman, J. Plomp, F.M. Mulder, H.G. Schimmel, I.M. De Schepper, Powder Technology 189 6–13 (2009)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2008.05.010

2.        Structure in cohesive powders studied with spin-echo small angle neutron scattering, R. Andersson, W.G. Bouwman, S. Luding, I.M. de Schepper, Granular Matter 10 407-414 (2008)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10035-008-0109-z

3.        Analysis of spin-echo small-angle neutron scattering, R. Andersson, L.F. van Heijkamp, I.M. de Schepper, W.G. Bouwman, J. Appl. Cryst.. 41, 868-885(2008)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S0021889808026770

4.        Stress, strain, and bulk microstructure in a cohesive powder, R. Andersson, W.G. Bouwman, S. Luding, I.M. de Schepper, Physical Review E 77 051303 (2008)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.77.051303