9 research outputs found
Clustering Instabilities in Gas-Solid Systems: Role of Dissipative Collisions vs. Viscous Losses
https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/abq_mj_news/4755/thumbnail.jp
Assessing a Hydrodynamic Description for Instabilities in Highly Dissipative, Freely Cooling Granular Gases
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 [Garz\'o 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 Navier-Stokes-order hydrodynamic equations by using the expressions of the
transport coefficients obtained from both the standard and the modified-Sonine
approximations. We examine the impact of both Sonine approximations over a
range of solids fraction \phi <0.2 for small restitution coefficients
e=0.25--0.4, where the standard and modified theories exhibit discrepancies.
The theoretical predictions for the critical length scales are compared to
molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, of which a small percentage were not
considered due to inelastic collapse. Results show excellent quantitative
agreement between MD and the modified-Sonine theory, while the standard theory
loses accuracy for this highly dissipative parameter space. The modified theory
also remedies a (highdissipation) qualitative mismatch between the standard
theory and MD for the instability that forms more readily. Furthermore, the
evolution of cluster size is briefly examined via MD, indicating that
domain-size clusters may remain stable or halve in size, depending on system
parameters.Comment: 4 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev.