Stability limit of a granular monolayer.

A granular monolayer is composed by spherical grains on a horizontal plate. The plate is then tilted until the monolayer breaks down. This critical angle has been measured for different widths and heights of the rectangular monolayer. The highest critical angles are found when one of these two characteristic lengths is less than about 30 bead diameters. When the polydispersity is less than one percent, the monolayer may be stable till angles close to 90( degrees ). Arches induce large critical angles. On the other hand, for a large and high monolayer, the critical angle saturates towards a lower value. This angle is related to the static friction of a grain on the plate. A model based on the block dynamics is proposed to describe the behavior of the avalanche angle as a function of the size of the monolayer and the polydispersity of the beads.