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Laboratory singing sand avalanches.

Simon Dagois-Bohy¹, Sandrine Ngo, Sylvain Courrech du Pont

¹Laboratoire Matières et Systèmes Complexes, Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, CNRS, UMR 7057, 75 013 Paris, France. simon.dagois-bohy@univ-paris-diderot.fr

|November 3, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Singing sand dunes emit loud, distinct sounds during avalanches due to grain vibrations. Laboratory experiments confirm this phenomenon, revealing sound frequency depends on grain diameter, not dune size.

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Area of Science:

Geophysics
Acoustics
Physics of granular materials

Background:

Singing dunes produce loud sounds (up to 110 dB) with specific frequencies, a phenomenon observed since ancient times.
Scientific observations indicate singing dunes consist of dry, well-sorted sand and emit sound during avalanches on slip faces.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the physical mechanisms behind the 'song of dunes' phenomenon.
To analyze the characteristics of sound emission from avalanches in both field and laboratory settings.
To determine the factors influencing the frequency and emission of sound from singing dunes.

Main Methods:

Reproduced singing avalanches in a laboratory setting on a hard plate.
Utilized accelerometers on the flowing sand surface and microphones above the avalanche.
Compared acoustic and vibration signals to analyze sound generation mechanisms.

Main Results:

Confirmed that vibrations within the flowing sand layer at the same frequency as the emitted sound are responsible for the sound.
Observed that sound frequency is solely dependent on grain diameter (scaling with the square root of gravity/diameter).
Identified a sound production threshold and analyzed sound beats occurring with larger avalanches.

Conclusions:

The 'song of dunes' is caused by vibrations within the sand layer during avalanches, with frequency determined by grain size.
Laboratory experiments successfully replicate and allow for detailed study of singing dune phenomena.
Further research can explore the size of sound-emitting coherent zones and other acoustic properties.