We study the effects of a line of spherical interstitial particles (or intruders) placed between two adjacent uncompressed chains of larger particles in a square packing of spheres, using experiments and numerical simulations. We excite one of the chains of particles adjacent to the intruders with an impact and show how energy is transmitted across the system until equipartition is reached from the excited (or impacted) chain to the absorbing (or adjacent) chain. The coupling of the two chains, although a purely two-dimensional effect, is modeled by a simplified one-and-a-half-dimensional system in which transverse motions of the particles are neglected.

• Received 21 June 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.032204