Anomalous Increase of Apparent Mass in a Silo due to Percolation

The apparent mass at the bottom of a granular pile confined in a vertical tube decreases for denser granular packing. We report that the denser granular packing comprising two different diameters of granules augments the apparent mass instead. This anomalous behavior occurs when small granules are stacked on the large ones. In the case of anomalous increase, a percolation effect is found and correlated with the augment of apparent mass at the bottom of the granular column. Finally, the results are qualitatively explained by using the Janssen model.