Centrifuge force is used to study granular materials in low gravity conditions. We consider a monolayer of noncohesive spherical grains placed on a plate. Reduced gravity conditions can be simulated in the plane by tilting or by rotating the plate. We compare both approaches experimentally. The volume fraction is found to increase with the apparent gravity and saturates. A model based on the exponential distribution of the Voronoi cell areas has been built and is in excellent agreement with the experimental data by extrapolating the fits of the data. Moreover, numerical simulations exhibit that more arches can be maintained at low apparent gravities than at high.

A soap bubble is a metastable object that eventually breaks. Indeed, the soapy water film thins until rupture, due to drainage and evaporation. In our experimental investigations, floating bubbles at the surface of a liquid bath have been considered. Their lifetime has been measured and reported with respect to their radius. Large bubbles last longer than small ones. Moreover, small bubbles have more predictable lifetimes than large ones. We propose a general equation for that lifetime, based on the lubrication theory. The evaporation is shown to be an essential process which determines the bubble lifetime.

We investigate the stability of a granular monolayer composed of spherical grains on an inclined plate. When the tilt angle alpha increases, some reorganizations are observed throughout the pile. The packing fraction rho of the packing evolves by successive jumps. Those discontinuous events precede the collapse of the pile at a critical angle alphac. The occurrence of precursors before avalanches is modeled by stop-and-go motions of blocks due to the competition between sliding friction and the Janssen effect [J. Durand, (Springer-Verlag, New York, 2000)].