Intruder motion in two-dimensional shaken granular beds

The dynamical behavior of an intruder immersed in a two-dimensional shaken granular bed is experimentally investigated. With two types of background particles, f-Γ phase diagrams depicting the intruder's motion are measured and compared. It is found that even with the same size and density ratio of the intruder to the background particles, the intruder exhibits a distinct behavior at given vibrational conditions: rising behavior in one granular bed; sinking behavior in another granular bed. We slightly tune the size and density ratio to confirm the reliability of the experimental results. In addition, we examine the influences of interstitial air, convection and the initial position on the intruder's motion, speculating that the opposite motion could be traced to the material properties of the background particles.