Mixing and segregation rates in sheared granular materials.

The vertical size segregation of granular materials, a process commonly associated with the Brazil-nut effect, has generally been thought to proceed faster the greater the size difference of the particles. We experimentally investigate sheared dense bidisperse granular materials as a function of the size ratio of the two species and find that the mixing rate at low confining pressure behaves as expected from percolation-based arguments. However, we also observe an anomalous effect for the resegregation rates, wherein the segregation rate is a nonmonotonic function of the particle size ratio with a maximum for intermediate particle size ratio. Combined with the fact that increasing the confining pressure significantly suppresses both mixing and segregation rates of particles of sufficiently dissimilar size, we propose that the anomalous behavior may be attributed to a species-dependent distribution of forces within the system.