Mean Field theory for a driven granular gas of frictional particles

Abstract

We propose a mean field (MF) theory for a homogeneously driven granular gas of inelastic particles with Coulomb friction. The model contains three parameters, a normal restitution coefficient $r_n$, a maximum tangential restitution coefficient $r_t^m$, and a Coulomb friction coefficient $\mu$. The parameters can be tuned to explore a wide range of physical situations. In particular, the model contains the frequently used $\mu \to \infty$ limit as a special case. The MF theory is compared with the numerical simulations of a randomly driven monolayer of spheres for a wide range of parameter values. If the system is far away from the clustering instability ($r_n\approx 1$), we obtain a good agreement between mean field and simulations for $\mu =0.5$ and $r_t^m=0.4$, but for much smaller values of $r_n$ the agreement is less good. We discuss the reasons of this discrepancy and possible refinements of our computational scheme.

6 pages, 3 figures (10 *.eps files), elsart style (macro included), in Proceedings of the International Conference "Statistical Mechanics and Strongly Correlated Systems", University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy), 27-29 September 1999

References in corpus (2)

• Clustering, Order, and Collapse in a Driven Granular Monolayer
• Homogeneous cooling of rough, dissipative particles: Theory and simulations

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Enskog kinetic theory of binary granular suspensions: heat flux and stability analysis of the homogeneous steady state
• Mean-squared displacements of rough particles in polydisperse granular gases