Close-Packed Floating Clusters: Granular Hydrodynamics Beyond the Freezing Point?

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.