Experimental study of the bouncing trajectory of a particle along a rotating wall

We intend to present a new experimental setup that allows the study of the trajectory of a solid spherical particle bouncing at a high velocity along a rotating plate. Using different surface treatments for the plate, we can explore the phase space for the mechanical parameters of the problem (normal restitution coefficient en and dynamic friction coefficient μ). An accurate statistical analysis of the trajectory (radial and angular velocities) has been conducted based on an image analysis procedure. Experiments show a regime of successive bounces, followed by a regime of permanent contact of the particle along the vane and a transition from a rolling with a sliding regime to a rolling without sliding regime triggered by the friction particle/wall. A simple model using two mechanical parameters (normal coefficient of restitution en and friction coefficient μ), as proposed recently [A. Le Quiniou and F. Rioual, “Flow of a particle along a rotating wall,” Europhys. Lett. 82, 34001 (2008)], is sufficient to reproduce quantitatively all the features of the trajectory. The friction coefficient has to be determined independently using a mechanical protocol of impact of a single particle on a fixed wall—following Foerster et al. [“Measurements of the collision properties of small spheres,” Phys. Fluids 6, 1108 (1994)]—in particular, an outcome of this study is that the initial spin of the particle appears to have no effect on the features of the impact as long as the relative velocities at the contact are considered.