1998/09/01 by Stefan Luding, S. Luding, Martin Huthmann +5 · 2 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Material Dynamics and Properties #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.58.3416
openalex publication_date 1998/09/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
We investigate freely cooling systems of rough spheres in two and three dimensions. Simulations using an event-driven algorithm are compared with results of an approximate kinetic theory, based on the assumption of a generalized homogeneous cooling state. For short times t, translational and rotational energy are found to change linearly with t. For large times both energies decay like t^\ensuremath-2 with a ratio independent of time, but not corresponding to equipartition. Good agreement is found between theory and simulations, as long as no clustering instability is observed. System parameters, i.e., density, particle size, and particle mass can be absorbed in a rescaled time, so that the decay of translational and rotational energy is solely determined by normal restitution and surface roughness.