Our instrument VIP-Gran is ready for parabolic flights in Bordeaux next weeks. The parameters of the experiments have been fixed at the Cologne meeting last September.  plan :

• Day 1: Segregation of small and large ITO coated glass beads: Thanks to the transparency of the particles demixing can be highlighted in the system. Moreover, convection is studied for granular media exposed to asymmetric excitation.
• Day 2: Thermodynamical limit: Increasing the cell size while maintaining a constant packing fraction triggers cluster formation. This counterintuitive phenomenon is linked to finite sizes effects present in our system.
• Day 3: Mixing anisotropic particles: We study a mixture of spherical beads and rods. Segregation coupled to the apparition of layers within the bulk may lead to ordered arrangements of the elongated particles.Collecting data is of crucial interest for confirming our recent discoveries : convection in granular gases and segregation phenomena in space.