Mechanisms of the Brazil Nut Effect
No less than ten different mechanisms have been proposed to explain the Brazil nut effect. Many explanations fall under the category of "void filling". That is, as large particles ascend upwards in the mixture, they leave behind voids that are filled by incoming particles. Other methods include convection, arching and inertia. Yet Huerta and Ruiz-Suarez find that only three mechanisms are necessary to explain granular segregation: inertia, convection, and buoyancy, by which they mean void filling [3]. Their experiment, like most others of the Brazil nut effect, consists of a glass cylinder (in other cases square cylinder) that is fixed to a vibrating table. The vibrating table oscillates the cylinder, which is filled with beads of two different sizes, vertically, at a set frequency for a set period of time. Bead distribution is observed before, during and after the oscillations. They find that one effect or the other dominates at different sphere densities; if ρ represents density, when ρ > 1, inertia dominates, and when ρ < 1, convection does