Patterning of “liquefied” sand surface in a cylinder filled with liquid and subjected to horizontal vibrations

Sand liquefaction has been generated by horizontal vibration of a sand-liquid mixture. The pattern formation of the sand-liquid interface was found at large vibration intensity. The vibro-convective nature of this relief generation is proved. We demonstrate that the only controlling parameter is W = ( b Ω) 2 / gD (radian frequency Ω, amplitude b , cell diameter D , gravity g ). An analogy is made with the vibro-convective relief generation of the interface between two immiscible liquids in a closed cell submitted to high-frequency horizontal vibration. Hence, most of the results are similar to those obtained with a liquid-liquid interface as shown in this paper; nevertheless we emphasize some peculiarities of sand behavior.