This work presents a useful extension of Kohonen's Self-Organizing Map (KSOM) for structure identification in linguistic (fuzzy) system modeling applications. More specifically the granular SOM neural model is presented for inducing a distribution of nonparametric fuzzy interval numbers (FINs) from the data. A FIN can represent a local probability distribution function and/or a conventional fuz...

We investigate the spatial structure of cohesive granular matter with spheres floating at an air-liquid interface that form disordered close packings with pores in between. The interface is slowly lowered in a conical container to uniformly compress and study the system as a function of area fraction ϕ. We find that the free area distributions associated with Voronoi cells show significant expo...

We show that the statistical properties of a vibrated granular bead chain are similar to standard models of polymers in equilibrium. Granular chains of length up to N=1024 beads were confined within a circular vibrating bed, and their configurations were imaged. To differentiate the effects of persistence and confinement on the chain, we compared with simulations of both persistent random-walk ...

We report on a toy model for the glassy compaction dynamics of granular systems, introduced and investigated in collaboration with Anita Mehta and Peter Stadler. A stochastic dynamics is defined on a column of grains. Grains are anisotropic and possess a discrete orientational degree of freedom. Gravity induces long-range directional interactions down the column. The key control parameter of th...

Velocity and density structure factors are measured over a hydrodynamic range of scales in a horizontal quasi-2D fluidized granular experiment, with packing fractions φ ∈ [10%, 40%]. The fluidization is realized by vertically vibrating a rough plate, on top of which particles perform a Brownian-like horizontal motion in addition to inelastic collisions. On one hand, the density structure factor...