Abstract
We discovered an oscillatory instability in a system of inelastically colliding hard spheres, driven by two opposite "thermal" walls at zero gravity. The instability, predicted by a linear stability analysis of the equations of granular hydrodynamics, occurs when the inelasticity of particle collisions exceeds a critical value. Molecular-dynamics simulations support the theory and show a stripe-shaped cluster moving back and forth in the middle of the box away from the driving walls. The oscillations are irregular but have a single dominating frequency that is close to the frequency at the instability onset, predicted from hydrodynamics.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 193-199 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Europhysics Letters |
Volume | 65 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2004 |