We create nearly perfect centimetric spheres of water by splitting a cavity consisting of two metal hemispheres coated with a hydrophobic paint and under-filled with liquid, while releasing the apparatus in free-fall. A high-speed camera captures how water spread on hydrophobic aluminum and polycarbonate plates perforated with cylindrical capillaries. We compare observations at the ZARM drop tower in Bremen with Lattice-Boltzmann numerical simulations of Frank, Perré and Li for the inertial phase of imbibition.

Analogies between fluid flows and granular flows are useful because they pave the way for continuum treatments of granular media. However, in practice it is impossible to predict under what experimental conditions the dynamics of fluids and granulates are qualitatively similar. In the case of unsteadily driven systems no such analogy is known. For example, in a partially filled container subject to horizontal oscillations liquids slosh, whereas granular media of complex particles exhibit large-scale convection rolls. We here show that smooth monodisperse steel spheres exhibit liquidlike sloshing dynamics. Our findings highlight the role of particle material and geometry for the dynamics and phase transitions of the system.