Novel experimental apparatus for granular experiments on basal friction

We have designed a novel experimental apparatus to probe the mechanics of sheared quasi two-dimensional frictional granular materials with tunable friction from the supporting base of the apparatus. The experiment consists of a floating layer of photoelastic disks, which is subject to deformation. Forces on the particles are measured at the particle scale, using their photoelastic properties. This novel setup makes the study of the role of basal friction on sheared granular media possible