Abstract: Scientific inquiry does not leave untouched any thing that is puzzling in behaviour and the mechanics of granular materials is one such subject. Here is a small part, which contributes to the research on such subject. Granular materials play an important role in process industries, most of the natural disasters like sand dunes, snow avalanches, beach erosion etc also involve granular flows. So there is a need to study the frictional properties of granular materials.

According to classical theory of physics the angle of friction of a solid remains constant irrespective of its weight. Here is a small experimental work, which modifies the classical theory for granular materials. Our results have proved that classical theory does not hold good for granular materials and the angle of friction for granular materials decreases with increase in weight. The experiment has been carried out by varying the thickness of granular material and for different materials namely mustard seeds and glass beads procured from Thane. The degree of compaction and the surface roughness are found to play an important role in this phenomenon. A brief literature survey has also been made. The work is carried out under the guidance of Prof. Prabhu R. Nott at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The results have been sent to IISc for a recheck. The proofs regarding the work will be produced during my presentation.

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