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arXiv · cond-mat/0311303

Oscillatory instability in a driven granular gas

Evgeniy Khain·Baruch Meerson
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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 dynamic 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.

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Evgeniy Khain, Baruch Meerson. 2003-11-13. Oscillatory instability in a driven granular gas. https://doi.org/10.1209/epl%2Fi2003-10072-8

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