Eur. Phys. J. B 3, 377-385 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050325

Diffusive properties of motion on a bumpy plane

¹ Groupe Matière Condensée et Matériaux, Campus de Beaulieu, Université de Rennes I, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France
² Institut Non-Linéaire de Nice, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, 1361 route des Lucioles, 06560 Valbonne, France
³ HLRZ, Forchungszentrum, 52425 Jülich, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a liliane.samson@univ-rennes1.fr

Received: 13 March 1997
Revised: 10 December 1997
Accepted: 17 February 1998
Published online: 15 June 1998

Abstract

We report on experiments studying the statistical properties of the motion of balls on a bumpy surface. This motion is found to be diffusive. In the direction of the mean flow, the coefficient of diffusion is found to attain a constant value, independent of the size of the ball and the inclination angle. The diffusion transverse to the mean flow is characterized by a coefficient which decreases with the inclination of the plane, and scales with the size of moving ball.