According to the levels of vibrational acceleration amplitude, different motion states may appear in a vibrated granular bed, including heaping, coherent, expansion, wave and arching. The heaping phenomena of sands or granular materials are well-known, but the internal physics is still unclear. This paper experimentally studies the heaping phenomenon in a vertical shaker. Heaping phenomenon occurs in a shaker when the vibrational acceleration amplitude is greater than 1.2 gravitational accelerations. In addition to the vibrational acceleration amplitude, particle properties (diameter, density and repose angle) and container sizes (width and bed initial height) are used as controlling parameters to investigate the heaping phenomenon.
