The patterning behaviour and accumulation of spherical particles in a vibrated non-isothermal liquid

A completely new phenomenon of particle accumulation in vibrated non-isothermal monodisperse suspensions of solid spheres (in a liquid) is analyzed. For the first time evidence is provided for this case that even in situations in which particle-particle hydrodynamic interactions are negligible (dilute systems), intriguing nonlinear effects can lead to the irreversible formation of well-defined particulate structures over long temporal scales, i.e., times much larger than the period of the applied vibrations. The long-range translational ordering is produced by the delicate interplay between convective effects (of thermovibrational nature) and the (inertial) response of each isolated particle to the time-periodic acceleration. A new family of particle attractors in the physical space is identified with the topological dimension being essentially a function of the symmetry properties of the considered vibrated system and related geometrical constraints. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.