2016/05/31 by Giorgio Pontuale, Andrea Gnoli, Francisco Vega Reyes +1 · 30 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical mechanics #Convection #Convective heat transfer #Dissipative system #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Heat and Mass Transfer in Porous Media #Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis #Materials science #Mechanics #Physics #Thermal #Thermodynamics #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.117.098006
published in Physical Review Letters 117(9), 098006 (American Physical Society) · accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, supplementary material included in this arxiv submission
arxiv created 2016/08/23 · openalex publication_date 2016/08/26 · arxiv updated 2016/08/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We consider a granular gas under the action of gravity, fluidized by a vibrating base. We show that a horizontal temperature gradient, here induced by limiting dissipative lateral walls (DLW), leads always to a granular thermal convection (DLW TC) that is essentially different from ordinary bulk-buoyancy-driven convection (BBD TC). In an experiment where BBD TC is inhibited, by reducing gravity with an inclined plane, we always observe a DLW TC cell next to each lateral wall. Such a cell squeezes towards the nearest wall as the gravity and/or the number of grains increase. Molecular dynamics simulations reproduce the experimental results and indicate that at large gravity or number of grains the DLW TC is barely detectable.