Looking for self-organized critical behavior in avalanches of slightly cohesive powders.

We report results from a statistical analysis of avalanches of cohesive powders in a slowly rotated drum. Interparticle adhesion, which diminishes the effect of inertia and whose magnitude strongly fluctuates in a local scale, makes avalanches in slightly cohesive powders eligible for displaying self-organized criticality. However, the results show that avalanche sizes, time interval between avalanches, and maximum stable angle do not follow a power-law distribution. Otherwise, these parameters scale with powder cohesiveness.