Recurrent inflation and collapse in horizontally shaken granular materials.

We report a striking effect observed experimentally in several granular materials when shaken horizontally: The material displays a recurrent alternation between a slow inflation phase, characterized by an increase in its volume, and a fast collapse phase, when the volume abruptly returns to its original value. The frequency of such phase alternations is totally decoupled from the frequency of the external drive. We argue that the inflation and collapse alternation arises from an interplay between the mechanical stability of the material and Reynolds dilatancy due to convective motion.