Using diamagnetically levitated particles we investigate the dynamics of the freely cooling granular gas. At early times we find good agreement with Haff's law, where the time scale for particle collisions can be determined from independent measurements. At late times, clustering of particles occurs. This can be included in a Haff-like description taking into account the decreasing number of free particles. With this a good description of the data is possible over the whole time range.
The long-time behavior of the current auto-correlation functions for the velocity, the shear stress and the heat flux is investigated in freely cooling granular gases. It is found that the correlation functions for the velocity and the shear stress have the long-time tails obeying $τ^{-d/2}$, while the correlation function of heat flux decays as $τ^{-(d+2)/2} \exp(-ζ^* τ)$ with the dimensionless cooling rate $ζ^*$, the spatial dimension $d$ and the scaled time $τ$ in terms of the collision frequency. The result of our numerical simulation of the freely cooling granular gases is consistent with…
The kinetic energy of a freely cooling granular gas decreases as a power law $t^{-θ}$ at large times $t$. Two theoretical conjectures exist for the exponent $θ$. One based on ballistic aggregation of compact spherical aggregates predicts $θ= 2d/(d+2)$ in $d$ dimensions. The other based on Burgers equation describing anisotropic, extended clusters predicts $θ=d/2$ when $2\le d \le 4$. We do extensive simulations in three dimensions to find that while $θ$ is as predicted by ballistic aggregation, the cluster statistics and velocity distribution differ from it. Thus, the freely cooling granular g…
The time evolution and stationary values of the entropy per particle of a homogeneous freely cooling granular gas, relative to the maximum entropy consistent with the instantaneous translational and rotational temperatures, is analyzed by means of a Sonine approximation involving fourth-degree cumulants. The results show a rich variety of dependencies of the relative entropy on time and on the coefficients of normal and tangential restitution, including a peculiar behavior in the quasi-smooth limit.
A freely cooling granular gas with velocity dependent restitution coefficient is studied in one dimension. The restitution coefficient becomes near elastic when the relative velocity of the colliding particles is less than a velocity scale $δ$. Different statistical quantities namely density distribution, occupied and empty cluster length distributions, and spatial density and velocity correlation functions, are obtained using event driven molecular dynamic simulations. We compare these with the corresponding quantities of the sticky gas (inelastic gas with zero coefficient of restitution). We…
We study dynamics of freely cooling granular gases in two-dimensions using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. We find that for dilute systems the typical kinetic energy decays algebraically with time, E(t) ~ t^{-1}, in the long time limit. Asymptotically, velocity statistics are characterized by a universal Gaussian distribution, in contrast with the exponential high-energy tails characterizing the early homogeneous regime. We show that in the late clustering regime particles move coherently as typical local velocity fluctuations, Delta v, are small compared with the typical velocity,…
Two granular gases separated by an adiabatic piston and initially in the same macroscopic state are considered. It is found that a phase transition with an spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs. When the mass of the piston is increased beyond a critical value, the piston moves to a stationary position different from the middle of the system. The transition is accurately described by a simple kinetic model that takes into account the velocity fluctuations of the piston. Interestingly, the final state is not characterized by the equality of the temperatures of the subsystems but by the cooling ra…
The non-Newtonian character of granular flow in a vertical pipe is analyzed. The time evolution of the flow velocity and the velocity fluctuations (or granular temperature) is derived. The steady state velocity has a power law dependence on the pipe width with an exponent between 3/4 and 3/2. The flow becomes faster the more efficient the collisional cooling is, provided the density remains low enough. The dependence of collisional cooling on the solid fraction, the restitution coefficient and a possible electric charge of all grains is discussed in detail.
In its simplest statistical-mechanical description, a granular fluid can be modeled as composed of smooth inelastic hard spheres (with a constant coefficient of normal restitution $α$) whose velocity distribution function obeys the Enskog-Boltzmann equation. The basic state of a granular fluid is the homogeneous cooling state, characterized by a homogeneous, isotropic, and stationary distribution of scaled velocities, $F(\mathbf{c})$. The behavior of $F(\mathbf{c})$ in the domain of thermal velocities ($c\sim 1$) can be characterized by the two first non-trivial coefficients ($a_2$ and $a_3$) …
The self-diffusion coefficient of a granular gas in the homogeneous cooling state is analyzed near the shearing instability. Using mode-coupling theory, it is shown that the coefficient diverges logarithmically as the instability is approached, due to the coupling of the diffusion process with the shear modes. The divergent behavior, which is peculiar of granular gases and disappears in the elastic limit, does not depend on any other transport coefficient. The theoretical prediction is confirmed by molecular dynamics simulation results for two-dimensional systems.
We analyze the asymptotic behavior of linear Fokker-Planck equations with time-dependent coefficients. Relaxation towards a Maxwellian distribution with time-dependent temperature is shown under explicitly computable conditions. We apply this result to the study of Brownian motion in granular gases as introduced J. J. Brey, J. Dufty and A. Santos (1999), by showing that the Homogenous Cooling State attracts any solution at an algebraic rate.
A freely falling stream of weakly cohesive granular particles is modeled and analysed with help of event driven simulations and continuum hydrodynamics. The former show a breakup of the stream into droplets, whose size is measured as a function of cohesive energy. Extensional flow is an exact solution of the one-dimensional Navier-Stokes equation, corresponding to a strain rate, decaying like 1/t from its initial value, gammaDot0. Expanding around this basic state, we show that the flow is stable for short times (gammaDot0 * t << 1), whereas for long times (gammaDot0 * t >> 1) perturbations of…
Finding the proper entropy-like Lyapunov functional associated with the inelastic Boltzmann equation for an isolated freely cooling granular gas is a still unsolved challenge. The original $H$-theorem hypotheses do not fit here and the $H$-functional presents some additional measure problems that are solved by the Kullback--Leibler divergence (KLD) of a reference velocity distribution function from the actual distribution. The right choice of the reference distribution in the KLD is crucial for the latter to qualify or not as a Lyapunov functional, the asymptotic "homogeneous cooling state" (H…
It is shown that the equilibrium Generalized Mean Spherical Model of fluid structure may be extended to nonequilibrium states with equation of state information used in equilibrium replaced by an exact condition on the two-body distribution function. The model is applied to the homogeneous cooling state of granular fluids and upon comparison to molecular dynamics simulations is found to provide an accurate picture of the pair distribution function.
We employ hydrodynamic equations to follow the clustering instability of a freely cooling dilute gas of inelastically colliding spheres into a well-developed nonlinear regime. We simplify the problem by dealing with a one-dimensional coarse-grained flow. We observe that at a late stage of the instability the shear stress becomes negligibly small, and the gas flows solely by inertia. As a result the flow formally develops a finite time singularity, as the velocity gradient and the gas density diverge at some location. We argue that flow by inertia represents a generic intermediate asymptotic of…
We report two phenomena, induced by dynamical correlations, that occur during the free cooling of a two-dimensional mixture of inelastic hard disks. First, we show that, due to the onset of velocity correlations, the ratio of the kinetic energies associated with the two species changes from the value corresponding to the homogeneous cooling state to a value approximately given by the mass ratio m_1/m_2 of the two species. Second, we report a novel segregation effect that occurs in the late stage of cooling, where interconnected domains appear. Spectral analysis of the composition field reveals…
We present a new microscopic model of granular medium to study the role of dynamical correlations and the onset of spatial order induced by the inelasticity of the interactions. In spite of its simplicity, it features several different aspects of the rich phenomenology observed in granular materials and allows to make contact with other topics of statistical mechanics such as diffusion processes, domain growth, persistence, aging phenomena. Interestingly, while local observables being controlled by the largest wavelength fluctuations seem to suggest a purely diffusive behavior, the formation o…
Hydrodynamic equations are used to identify the final state reached by a freely evolving granular gas above but close to its shear instability. The theory predicts the formation of a two bands shear state with a steady density profile. There is a modulation between temperature and density profiles as a consequence of the energy balance, the density fluctuations remaining small, without producing clustering. Moreover, the time dependence of the velocity field can be scaled out with the squared root of the average temperature of the system. The latter follows the Haff law, but with an effective …
We study a model of freely cooling inelastic granular gas in one dimension, with a restitution coefficient which approaches the elastic limit below a relative velocity scale v. While at early times (t << 1/v) the gas behaves as a completely inelastic sticky gas conforming to predictions of earlier studies, at late times (t >> 1/v) it exhibits a new fluctuation dominated phase ordering state. We find distinct scaling behavior for the (i) density distribution function, (ii) occupied and empty gap distribution functions, (iii) the density structure function and (iv) the velocity structure functio…
In contrast to molecular gases, granular gases are characterized by inelastic collisions and require therefore permanent driving to maintain a constant kinetic energy. The kinetic theory of granular gases describes how the average velocity of the particles decreases after the driving is shut off. Moreover it predicts that the rescaled particle velocity distribution will approach a stationary state with overpopulated high-velocity tails as compared to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. While this fundamental theoretical result was reproduced by numerical simulations, an experimental confirmati…
Dry, freely evolving granular materials in a dilute gaseous state coalesce into dense clusters only due to dissipative interactions. This clustering transition is important for a number of problems ranging from geophysics to cosmology. Here we show that the evolution of a dilute, freely cooling granular gas is determined in a universal way by the ratio of inertial flow and thermal velocities, that is, the Mach number. Theoretical calculations and direct numerical simulations of the granular Navier--Stokes equations show that irrespective of the coefficient of restitution, density or initial ve…
The time dependence of deviations from the Gaussian state in a freely cooling homogeneous system of smooth inelastically colliding spheres is investigated by kinetic theory. We determine the full time dependence of the coefficients of an expansion around the Gaussian state in Generalized Laguerre polynomials. Approximating this system of equations to sixth order, we find that the asymptotic state, where the mean energy T follows Haff's law with time independent cooling rate, is reached within a few collisions per particle. Two-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations confirm our results and …
The velocity distribution of inelastic granular gas is examined numerically on two dimensional hard disk system in nearly elastic regime using molecular dynamical simulations. The system is prepared initially in the equilibrium state with the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, then after a several inelastic collisions per particle, the system falls in the state that the Boltzmann equation predicts with the stationary form of velocity distribution. It turns out, however, that due to the velocity correlation the form of the distribution function does not stay time-independent, but is gradually retu…
In a recent paper [A. Santos, G. M. Kremer, and V. Garzó, \emph{Prog. Theor. Phys. Suppl.} \textbf{184}, 31-48 (2010)] the collisional energy production rates associated with the translational and rotational granular temperatures in a granular fluid mixture of inelastic rough hard spheres have been derived. In the present paper the energy production rates are explicitly decomposed into equipartition rates (tending to make all the temperatures equal) plus genuine cooling rates (reflecting the collisional dissipation of energy). Next the homogeneous free cooling state of a binary mixture is anal…
We investigate the effect of fragmentation on the homogeneous free cooling of inelastic hard spheres, using Boltzmann kinetic theory and Direct Monte Carlo simulations. We analyze in detail a model where dissipative collisions may subsequently lead to a break-up of the grains. With a given probability, two off-springs are then created from one of the two colliding partners, with conservation of mass, momentum and kinetic energy. We observe a scaling regime characterized by a single collisional average, that quantifies the deviations from Gaussian behaviour for the joint size and velocity distr…
We performed molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the clustering instability of a freely cooling dilute gas of inelastically colliding disks in a quasi-one-dimensional setting. We observe that, as the gas cools, the shear stress becomes negligibly small, and the gas flows by inertia only. Finite-time singularities, intrinsic in such a flow, are arrested only when close-packed clusters are formed. We observe that the late-time dynamics of this system are describable by the Burgers equation with vanishing viscosity, and predict the long-time coarsening behavior.
The inhomogeneous cooling state describing the hydrodynamic behavior of a freely evolving granular gas strongly confined between two parallel plates is studied, using a Boltzmann kinetic equation derived recently. By extending the idea of the homogeneous cooling state, we propose a scaling distribution in which all the time dependence occurs through the granular temperature of the system, while there is a dependence on the distance to the confining walls through the density. It is obtained that the velocity distribution is not isotropic, and it has two different granular temperature parameters…
We present results from comprehensive event-driven (ED) simulations of nonlinear pattern formation in freely-evolving granular gases. In particular, we focus on the the morphologies of density and velocity fields in the inhomogeneous cooling state (ICS). We emphasize the strong analogy between the ICS morphologies and pattern formation in phase ordering systems with a globally conserved order parameter.
The dissipation rate due to inelastic collisions between equally charged, insulating particles in a dilute granular medium is calculated. It is equal to the known dissipation rate for uncharged granular media multiplied by a Boltzmann-like factor, that originates from Coulomb interactions. We include particle correlations by introducing an effective potential, that replaces the bare Coulomb potential in the Boltzmann factor. All results are confirmed by computer simulations.
Via event-driven molecular dynamics simulations we study kinetics of clustering in assemblies of inelastic particles in various space dimensions. We consider two models, viz., the ballistic aggregation model (BAM) and the freely cooling granular gas model (GGM), for each of which we quantify the time dependence of kinetic energy and average mass of clusters (that form due to inelastic collisions). These quantities, for both the models, exhibit power-law behavior, at least in the long time limit. For the BAM, corresponding exponents exhibit strong dimension dependence and follow a hyperscaling …
A hierarchy of equations was introduced recently to describe the kinetics of homogeneous cooling of the gas of inelastic hard spheres. It is argued that this hierarchy does not describe this system accurately, and a simple test for this is proposed. A stochastic interpretation of the hierarchy is presented.
A polydisperse granular gas made of inelastic and rough hard disks is considered. Focus is laid on the kinetic-theory derivation of the partial energy production rates and the total cooling rate as functions of the partial densities and temperatures (both translational and rotational) and of the parameters of the mixture (masses, diameters, moments of inertia, and mutual coefficients of normal and tangential restitution). The results are applied to the homogeneous cooling state of the system and the associated nonequipartition of energy among the different components and degrees of freedom. It…
We have developed a kinetic theory of hard needles undergoing binary collisions with loss of energy due to normal and tangential restitution. In addition, we have simulated many particle systems of granular hard needles. The theory, based on the assumption of a homogeneous cooling state, predicts that granular cooling of the needles proceeds in two stages: An exponential decay of the initial configuration to a state where translational and rotational energies take on a time independent ratio (not necessarily unity), followed by an algebraic decay of the total kinetic energy $\sim t^{-2}$. The …
The formation of velocity vortices and density clusters is an intriguing phenomenon of freely cooling granular flows. In this work, the critical length scale $L_c$ for the onset of instability is determined via stability analysis of the linearized Navier-Stokes hydrodynamic equations of $d$-dimensional granular binary mixtures at moderate densities. In contrast to previous attempts, the analysis is not restricted to nearly elastic systems since it takes into account the nonlinear dependence of the transport coefficients and the cooling rate on the collisional dissipation. As expected from prev…
The connection between granular gases and sticky gases has recently been considered, leading to the conjecture that inelastic collapse is avoided for space dimensions higher than 4. We report Molecular Dynamics simulations of hard inelastic spheres in dimensions 4, 5 and 6. The evolution of the granular medium is monitored throughout the cooling process. The behaviour is found to be very similar to that of a two-dimensional system, with a shearing-like instability of the velocity field and inelastic collapse when collisions are inelastic enough, showing that the connection with sticky gases ne…
We present a universal description of the velocity distribution function of granular gases, $f(v)$, valid for both, small and intermediate velocities where $v$ is close to the thermal velocity and also for large $v$ where the distribution function reveals an exponentially decaying tail. By means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations and by kinetic theory we show that the deviation from the Maxwell distribution in the high-energy tail leads to small but detectable variation of the cooling coefficient and to extraordinary large relaxation time.
Kinetic properties of a granular gas of viscoelastic particles in a homogeneous cooling state are studied analytically and numerically. We employ the most recent expression for the velocity-dependent restitution coefficient for colliding viscoelastic particles, which allows to describe systems with large inelasticity. In contrast to previous studies, the third coefficient a3 of the Sonine polynomials expansion of the velocity distribution function is taken into account. We observe a complicated evolution of this coefficient. Moreover, we find that a3 is always of the same order of magnitude as…
We investigate the cooling rate of a gas of inelastically interacting particles. When we assume velocity dependent coefficients of restitution the material cools down slower than with constant restitution. This behavior might have large influence to clustering and structure formation processes.
The properties of a dilute granular gas in the homogeneous cooling state are mapped to those of a stationary state by means of a change in the time scale that does not involve any internal property of the system. The new representation is closely related with a general property of the granular temperature in the long time limit. The physical and practical implications of the mapping are discussed. In particular, simulation results obtained by the direct simulation Monte Carlo method applied to the scaled dynamics are reported. This includes ensemble averages and also the velocity autocorrelati…
We study the single particle velocity distribution for a granular fluid of inelastic hard spheres or disks, using the Enskog-Boltzmann equation, both for the homogeneous cooling of a freely evolving system and for the stationary state of a uniformly heated system, and explicitly calculate the fourth cumulant of the distribution. For the undriven case, our result agrees well with computer simulations of Brey et al. \cite{brey}. Corrections due to non-Gaussian behavior on cooling rate and stationary temperature are found to be small at all inelasticities. The velocity distribution in the uniform…
We consider a mean field model describing the free cooling process of a two component granular mixture, a generalization of so called Maxwell model. The cooling is viewed as an ordering process and the scaling behavior is attributed to the presence of an attractive fixed point at $v=0$ for the dynamics. By means of asymptotic analysis of the Boltzmann equation and of numerical simulations we get the following results: 1)we establish the existence of two different partial granular temperatures, one for each component, which violates the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics; 2) we obtain the scaling for…
We study the formation and the dynamics of correlations in the velocity field for 1D and 2D cooling granular gases with the assumption of negligible density fluctuations (``Homogeneous Velocity-correlated Cooling State'', HVCS). It is shown that the predictions of mean field models fail when velocity fluctuations become important. The study of correlations is done by means of molecular dynamics and introducing an Inelastic Lattice Maxwell Models. This lattice model is able to reproduce all the properties of the Homogeneous Cooling State and several features of the HVCS. Moreover it allows very…
The hydrodynamic part of the velocity autocorrelation function of a granular fluid in the homogeneous cooling state has been calculated by using mode-coupling theory for a finite system with periodic boundary conditions. The existence of the shearing instability, leading to a divergent behavior of the velocity flow fluctuations, is taken into account. A time region in which the velocity autocorrelation function exhibits a power law decay, when time is measured by the number of collisions per particle, has been been identified. Also the explicit form of the exponential asymptotic long time deca…
We study the free evolution of frictional granular gases using large scale molecular dynamics simulation in three dimensions. The system cools due to solid friction among the interacting particles. At early stages of evolution, the density field remains homogeneous and the velocity field follows the Maxwell-Boltzmann (MB) distribution. However, at later times, the density field shows clustering and the velocity field shows local ordering. The ordering in the velocity field is studied by invoking analogy from phase ordering systems. The equal-time correlation function of velocity field follows …
An intriguing phenomenon displayed by granular flows and predicted by kinetic-theory-based models is the instability known as particle "clustering," which refers to the tendency of dissipative grains to form transient, loose regions of relatively high concentration. In this work, we assess a modified-Sonine approximation recently proposed [Garzó et al., Physica A 376, 94 (2007)] for a granular gas via an examination of system stability. In particular, we determine the critical length scale associated with the onset of two types of instabilities -vortices and clusters- via stability analyses of…
The homogeneous cooling state (HCS) of a granular gas described by the inelastic Boltzmann equation is reconsidered. As usual, particles are taken as inelastic hard disks or spheres, but now the coefficient of normal restitution $α$ is allowed to take negative values $α\in[-1,1]$, a simple way of modeling more complicated inelastic interactions. The distribution function of the HCS is studied at the long-time limit, as well as for intermediate times. At the long-time limit, the relevant information of the HCS is given by a scaling distribution function $ϕ_s(c)$, where the time dependence occur…
A linear stability analysis of the hydrodynamic equations with respect to the homogeneous cooling state is carried out to identify the conditions for stability of a granular gas of rough hard spheres. The description is based on the results for the transport coefficients derived from the Boltzmann equation for inelastic rough hard spheres [Phys. Rev. E 90, 022205 (2014)], which take into account the complete nonlinear dependence of the transport coefficients and the cooling rate on the coefficients of normal and tangential restitution. As expected, linear stability analysis shows that a doubly…
Behavior analogous to a second order phase transition is observed for the homogeneous cooling state of a heavy impurity particle in a granular fluid. The order parameter $ϕ$ is the ratio of impurity mean square velocity to that of the fluid, with a conjugate field $h$ proportional to the mass ratio. A parameter $β$, measuring the fluid cooling rate relative to the impurity--fluid collision rate, is the analogue of the inverse temperature. For $β<1$ the fluid is ``normal'' with $ϕ=0$ at $h=0$, as in the case of a system with elastic collisions. For $β>1$ an ``ordered'' state with $ϕ\neq 0$ occu…
The coefficient of self-diffusion for a homogeneously cooling granular gas changes significantly if the impact-velocity dependence of the restitution coefficient $ε$ is taken into account. For the case of a constant $ε$ the particles spread logarithmically slow with time, whereas the velocity dependent coefficient yields a power law time-dependence. The impact of the difference in these time dependences on the properties of a freely cooling granular gas is discussed.
Many important properties of granular fluids can be represented by a system of hard spheres with inelastic collisions. Traditional methods of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics are effective for analysis and description of the inelastic case as well. This is illustrated here for diffusion of an impurity particle in a fluid undergoing homogeneous cooling. An appropriate scaling of the Liouville equation is described such that the homogeneous cooling ensemble and associated time correlation functions map to those of a stationary state. In this form the familiar methods of linear response can b…
The presence of the aging phenomenon in the homogeneous cooling state (HCS) of a granular fluid composed of inelastic hard spheres or disks is investigated. As a consequence of the scaling property of the $N$-particle distribution function, it is obtained that the decay of the normalized two-time correlation functions slows down as the time elapsed since the beginning of the measurement increases. This result is confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations for the particular case of the total energy of the system. The agreement is also quantitative in the low density limit, for which an explici…
The total energy E(t) in a fluid of inelastic particles is dissipated through inelastic collisions. When such systems are prepared in a homogeneous initial state and evolve undriven, E(t) decays initially as t^{-2} \aprox exp[ - 2ετ] (known as Haff's law), where τis the average number of collisions suffered by a particle within time t, and ε=1-α^2 measures the degree of inelasticity, with αthe coefficient of normal restitution. This decay law is extended for large times to E(t) \aprox τ^{-d/2} in d-dimensions, far into the nonlinear clustering regime. The theoretical predictions are quantitati…
We present large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to study the free evolution of granular gases. Initially, the density of particles is homogeneous and the velocity follows a Maxwell-Boltzmann (MB) distribution. The system cools down due to solid friction between the granular particles. The density remains homogeneous, and the velocity distribution remains MB at early times, while the kinetic energy of the system decays with time. However, fluctuations in the density and velocity fields grow, and the system evolves via formation of clusters in the density field and the local ordering of ve…
An isolated mixture of smooth, inelastic hard spheres supports a homogeneous cooling state with different kinetic temperatures for each species. This phenomenon is explored here by molecular dynamics simulation of a two component fluid, with comparison to predictions of the Enskog kinetic theory. The ratio of kinetic temperatures is studied for two values of the restitution coefficient, $α=0.95$ and 0.80, as a function of mass ratio, size ratio, composition, and density. Good agreement between theory and simulation is found for the lower densities and higher restitution coefficient; significan…
Wet granular materials are characterized by a defined bond energy in their particle interaction such that breaking a bond implies an irreversible loss of a fixed amount of energy. Associated with the bond energy is a nonequilibrium transition, setting in as the granular temperature falls below the bond energy. The subsequent aggregation of particles into clusters is shown to be a self-similar growth process with a cluster size distribution that obeys scaling. In the early phase of aggregation the clusters are fractals with D_f=2, for later times we observe gelation. We use simple scaling argum…
A kinetic model for the Boltzmann equation is proposed and explored as a practical means to investigate the properties of a dilute granular gas. It is shown that all spatially homogeneous initial distributions approach a universal "homogeneous cooling solution" after a few collisions. The homogeneous cooling solution (HCS) is studied in some detail and the exact solution is compared with known results for the hard sphere Boltzmann equation. It is shown that all qualitative features of the HCS, including the nature of over population at large velocities, are reproduced semi-quantitatively by th…
