Washboard road: fully developed

This movie is in QuickTime format. Download the QuickTime plugin.

Washboard road results from the instability of a granular surface under the action of rolling wheels. Here, a hard rubber wheel rolls on the edge of a rotating table covered with a bed of sand. The wheel suspension is simply a lever. The table is 1.2 m in diameter.

The movie shows the fully developed ripple pattern. The wheel leaves the surface. The movie is in slow motion.

Here are two more movies of a long view of the experiment, and of the onset of the ripple pattern.

Go here for downloadable versions of the movies in other formats.

See Washboard Road abstract for a publications about this effect.

________________________________________________

Go to the Nonlinear Physics Group home page

The Experimental Nonlinear Physics Group, Dept. of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George St. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A7. Phone (416) 978 - 6810.

Washboard road: fully developed

Go to the Nonlinear Physics Group home page The Experimental Nonlinear Physics Group, Dept. of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George St. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A7. Phone (416) 978 - 6810.

Go to the Nonlinear Physics Group home page

The Experimental Nonlinear Physics Group, Dept. of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George St. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 1A7. Phone (416) 978 - 6810.