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Abstract
We report on simple shaking experiments to measure the compaction of a column of Firth oat grain. Such grains are elongated anisotropic particles with a bimodal polydispersity. In these experiments, the particle configurations start from an initially disordered, low-packing-fraction state and under vertical shaking evolve to a dense state with evidence of nematic-like structure at the surface of the confining tube. This is accompanied by an increase in the packing fraction of the grain.
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Acknowledgments
Participation by I.G. was part of the Quoats project funded through the Defra Sustainable Arable LINK Programme. Thanks are also due to Dr C Howarth for raising our interest in oat seed characteristics. J.W. acknowledges financial support through the joint IBERS-IMAPS summer studentship programme. We thank Mr. S. Fern, Mr. M. Gunn and Dr. D. Langstaff for their invaluable support with the experimental set-up.