Granular materials are ubiquitous in our daily lives. While they have been the subject of intensive engineering research for centuries, in the last two decades granular matter has attracted significant attention from physicists. Yet despite major efforts by many groups, the theoretical description of granular systems remains largely a plethora of different, often contradictory concepts and approaches. Various theoretical models have emerged for describing the onset of collective behavior and pattern formation in granular matter. This review surveys a number of situations in which nontrivial patterns emerge in granular systems, elucidates important distinctions between these phenomena and similar ones occurring in continuum fluids, and describes general principles and models of pattern formation in complex systems that have been successfully applied to granular systems.

/pdf/patterns-and-collective-behavior-in-granular-media-2t8b6sr2ja.pdf

Patterns and collective behavior in granular media: Theoretical concepts

▪ Abstract The recent avalanche of research activity in the field of granular matter has yielded much progress. The use of state-of-the-art (and other) computational and experimental methods has led to the discovery of new states and patterns and enabled detailed tests of theories and models. The application of statistical mechanical methods and phenomenology has contributed to the understanding of the microscopic a nd macroscopic properties of granular systems. Some previously open problems seem to be solved. Fluidized granular systems (rapid granular flows), recently referred to as granular gases, are often modeled by hydrodynamic equations of motion, some of which are based on systematic expansions applied to the pertinent Boltzmann equation. The undeniable success of granular hydrodynamics is somewhat surprising in view of the lack of scale separation in these systems and the neglect of certain correlations in most derivations of the hydrodynamic equations. Microstructures have been recognized as key ...

Rapid granular flows

Foreword 1. Introduction 2. Interactions at the grain level 3. The granular solid: statics and elasticity 4. The granular solid: plasticity 5. Granular gases 6. The granular liquid 7. Immersed granular media 8. Erosion and sediment transport 9. Geomorphology References Index.

Granular Media: Between Fluid and Solid

Granular material flows – An overview

We investigate a Boltzmann equation for inelastic scattering in which the relative velocity in the collision frequency is approximated by the thermal speed. The inelasticity is given by a velocity variable restitution coefficient. This equation is the analog to the Boltzmann classical equation for Maxwellian molecules. We study the homogeneous regime using Fourier analysis methods. We analyze the existence and uniqueness questions, the linearized operator around the Dirac delta function, self-similar solutions and moment equations. We clarify the conditions under which self-similar solutions describe the asymptotic behavior of the homogeneous equation. We obtain formally a hydrodynamic description for near elastic particles under the assumption of constant and variable restitution coefficient. We describe the linear long-wave stability/instability for homogeneous cooling states.

On some properties of kinetic and hydrodynamic equations for inelastic interactions

The Chapman–Enskog expansion is generalized in order to derive constitutive relations for flows of inelastically colliding spheres in three dimensions – to Burnett order. To this end, the pertinent (nonlinear) Boltzmann equation is perturbatively solved by performing a (double) expansion in the Knudsen number and the degree of inelasticity. One of the results is that the normal stress differences and the ‘temperature anisotropy’, characterizing granular fluids, are Burnett effects. The constitutive relations derived in this work differ, both qualitatively and quantitatively, from those obtained in previous studies. In particular, the Navier–Stokes (order) terms have a different dependence on the degree of inelasticity and the number density than in previously derived constitutive relations; for instance, the expression for the heat flux contains a term which is proportional to e∇ log n, where e is a measure of the degree of inelasticity and n denotes the number density. This contribution to the heat flux is of zeroth order in the density; a similar term, i.e. one that is proportional to e∇n, has been previously obtained by using the Enskog correction but this term is O(n) and it vanishes in the Boltzmann limit. These discrepancies are resolved by an analysis of the Chapman–Enskog and Grad expansions, pertaining to granular flows, which reveals that the quasi-microscopic rate of decay of the temperature, which has not been taken into account heretofore, provides an important scale that affects the constitutive relations. Some (minor) quantitative differences between our results and previous ones exist as well. These are due to the fact that we take into account an isotropic correction to the leading Maxwellian distribution, which has not been considered before, and also because we consider the full dependence of the corrections to the Maxwellian distribution on the (fluctuating) speed.

N. Sela

Papers

Hydrodynamic equations for rapid flows of smooth inelastic spheres, to Burnett order