Abstract
Monodisperse granular flows often develop regions with hexagonal close packing of particles. We investigate this effect in a system of inelastic hard spheres driven from below by a athermal late. Molecular dynamics simulations show, in a wide range of parameters, a close-packed cluster supported by a low-density region. Surprisingly, the steady-state density profile, including the close-packed cluster part, is well described by a variant of Navier-Stokes granular hydrodynamics (NSGH). We suggest a simple explanation for the success of NSGH beyond the freezing point.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | 91 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 8 Jul 2003 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are grateful to Stefan Luding for comments and ?>for sharing with us his unpublished results on the ?>shear viscosity divergence. We thank Igor Aronson, Detlef Lohse, and Arkady Vilenkin for discussions. ?>This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. ) and by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant No. PO ).