arXiv subjects

Francisco Vega Reyes

Publications and source records attributed to Francisco Vega Reyes.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Thermal properties of an impurity immersed in a granular gas of rough hard spheres

We study in this work the dynamics of a granular impurity immersed in a low-density granular gas of identical particles. For description of the kinetics of the granular gas and the impurity particles we use the rough hard sphere collisional model. We take into account the effects of non-conservation of energy upon particle collision. We find an (approximate) analytical solution of the pertinent kinetic equations for the single-particle velocity distribution functions that reproduces reasonably well the properties of translational/rotational energy non-equipartition. We assess the accuracy of the theoretical solution by comparing with computer simulations. For this, we use two independent computer data sets, from molecular dynamics (MD) and from Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method (DSMC). Both approach well, with different degrees, the kinetic theory within a reasonable range of parameter values.

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arXiv2017

Dissipative lateral walls are sufficient to trigger convection in vibrated granular gases

Buoyancy-driven (thermal) convection in dilute granular media, fluidized by a vibrating base, is known to appear without the need of lateral boundaries in a restricted region of parameters (inelasticity, gravity, intensity of energy injection). We have recently discovered a second buoyancy-driven convection effect which occurs at any value of the parameters, provided that the impact of particles with the lateral walls is inelastic (Pontuale et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 098006 (2016)). It is understood that this novel convection effect is strictly correlated to the existence of perpendicular energy fluxes: a vertical one, induced by both bulk and wall inelasticity, and a horizontal one, induced only by dissipation at the walls. Here we first review those previous results, and then present new experimental and numerical data concerning the variations of box geometry, intensity of energy injection, number of particles and width of the box.

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arXiv2016

Thermal convection in granular gases with dissipative lateral walls

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 buoyancy-driven convection (BD-TC). In an experiment where BD-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.

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arXiv2015

Steady state in a gas of inelastic rough spheres heated by a uniform stochastic force

We study here the steady state attained in a granular gas of inelastic rough spheres that is subject to a spatially uniform random volume force. The stochastic force has the form of the so-called white noise and acts by adding impulse to the particle translational velocities. We work out an analytical solution of the corresponding velocity distribution function from a Sonine polynomial expansion that displays energy non-equipartition between the translational and rotational modes, translational and rotational kurtoses, and translational-rotational velocity correlations. By comparison with a numerical solution of the Boltzmann kinetic equation (by means of the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method) we show that our analytical solution provides a good description that is quantitatively very accurate in certain ranges of inelasticity and roughness. We also find three important features that make the forced granular gas steady state very different from the homogeneous cooling state (attained by an unforced granular gas). First, the marginal velocity distributions are always close to a Maxwellian. Second, there is a continuous transition to the purely smooth limit (where the effects of particle rotations are ignored). And third, the angular translational-rotational velocity correlations show a preference for a quasiperpendicular mutual orientation (which is called "lifted-tennis-ball" behavior).

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arXiv2014

Thermal diffusion segregation of an impurity in a driven granular fluid

We study segregation of an impurity in a driven granular fluid under two types of \emph{steady} states. In the first state, the granular gas is driven by a stochastic volume force field with a Fourier-type profile while in the second state, the granular gas is sheared in such a way that inelastic cooling is balanced by viscous heating. We compare theoretical results derived from a solution of the (inelastic) Boltzmann equation at Navier-Stokes (NS) order with those obtained from the Direct Monte Carlo simulation (DSMC) method and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Good agreement is found between theory and simulation, which provides strong evidence of the reliability of NS granular hydrodynamics for these steady states (including the dynamics of the impurity), even at high inelasticities. In addition, preliminary results for thermal diffusion in granular fluids at moderate densitis are also presented. As for dilute gases \cite{VGK14}, excellent agreement is also found in this more general case.

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arXiv2014

Hydrodynamic granular segregation induced by boundary heating and shear

Segregation induced by a thermal gradient of an impurity in a driven low-density granular gas is studied. The system is enclosed between two parallel walls from which we input thermal energy to the gas. We study here steady states occurring when the inelastic cooling is exactly balanced by some external energy input (stochastic force or viscous heating), resulting in a uniform heat flux. A segregation criterion based on Navier-Stokes granular hydrodynamics is written in terms of the tracer diffusion transport coefficients, whose dependence on the parameters of the system (masses, sizes and coefficients of restitution) is explicitly determined from a solution of the inelastic Boltzmann equation. The theoretical predictions are validated by means of Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations, showing that Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics produces accurate segregation criteria even under strong shearing and/or inelasticity.

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arXiv2014

Navier-Stokes transport coefficients for driven inelastic Maxwell models

We calculate in this work the Navier-Stokes transport coefficients from the Boltzmann equation for $d$-dimensional inelastic Maxwell models. By granular gas we mean here a low density system of identical spheres that lose a fraction of their kinetic energy after collisions. In the present work, the granular gas is fluidized by the presence of a thermostat that aides the system to reach a steady state. The thermostat is composed by two terms: a random force and a drag force. The combined action of both forces, that act homogeneously on the granular gas, tries to mimic the interaction of the set of particles with a surrounding fluid. The Chapman-Enskog method is applied to solve the inelastic Boltzmann equation to first order in the deviations of the hydrodynamic fields from their values in the homogeneous steady state. Since the collisional cooling cannot be compensated locally for by the heat produced by the driving forces, the reference (zeroth-order) distribution function $f^{(0)}$ depends on time through its dependence on the granular temperature. To simplify the analysis and obtain explicit forms for the transport coefficients, the steady state conditions are considered. A comparison with previous results obtained for inelastic hard spheres is also carried out.

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arXiv2013

Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics in a granular gas fluidized by a non-uniform stochastic field

We show a case of steady flow in a granular gas that, for small shear rates, is accurately described by Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics, even for high inelasticity. The (low density) granular gas is composed of identical inelastic spheres and is fluidized by a temperature field produced by a stochastic volume force plus thermal walls. We prove that the theoretical Navier-Stokes transport coefficients exhibit good agreement with numerical solutions of the corresponding the kinetic equation (direct simulation Monte Carlo method) in the steady state.

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arXiv2013

Homogeneous steady states in a granular fluid driven by a stochastic bath with friction

The homogeneous state of a granular flow of smooth inelastic hard spheres or disks described by the Enskog-Boltzmann kinetic equation is analyzed. The granular gas is fluidized by the presence of a random force and a drag force. The combined action of both forces, that act homogeneously on the granular gas, tries to mimic the interaction of the set of particles with a surrounding fluid. The first stochastic force thermalizes the system, providing for the necessary energy recovery to keep the system in its gas state at all times, whereas the second force allows us to mimic the action of the surrounding fluid viscosity. After a transient regime, the gas reaches a steady state characterized by a \emph{scaled} distribution function $φ$ that does not only depend on the dimensionless velocity $\mathbf{c}\equiv \mathbf{v}/v_0$ ($v_0$ being the thermal velocity) but also on the dimensionless driving force parameters. The dependence of $φ$ and its first relevant velocity moments $a_2$ and $a_3$ (which measure non-Gaussian properties of $φ$) on both the coefficient of restitution $\al$ and the driven parameters is widely investigated by means of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. In addition, approximate forms for $a_2$ and $a_3$ are also derived from an expansion of $φ$ in Sonine polynomials. The theoretical expressions of the above Sonine coefficients agree well with simulation data, even for quite small values of $α$. Moreover, the third order expansion of the distribution function makes a significant accuracy improvement for larger velocities and inelasticities. Results also show that the non-Gaussian corrections to the distribution function $φ$ are smaller than those observed for undriven granular gases.

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arXiv2013

Diffusion transport coefficients for granular binary mixtures at low density. Thermal diffusion segregation

The mass flux of a low-density granular binary mixture obtained previously by solving the Boltzmann equation by means of the Chapman-Enskog method is considered further. As in the elastic case, the associated transport coefficients $D$, $D_p$ and $D'$ are given in terms of the solutions of a set of coupled linear integral equations which are approximately solved by considering the first and second Sonine approximations. The diffusion coefficients are explicitly obtained as functions of the coefficients of restitution and the parameters of the mixture (masses, diameters and concentration) and their expressions hold for an arbitrary number of dimensions. In order to check the accuracy of the second Sonine correction for highly inelastic collisions, the Boltzmann equation is also numerically solved by means of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method to determine the mutual diffusion coefficient $D$ in some special situations (self-diffusion problem and tracer limit). The comparison with DSMC results reveals that the second Sonine approximation to $D$ improves the predictions made from the first Sonine approximation. We also study the granular segregation driven by a uni-directional thermal gradient. The segregation criterion is obtained from the so-called thermal diffusion factor $Λ$, which measures the amount of segregation parallel to the temperature gradient. The factor $Λ$ is determined here by considering the second-order Sonine forms of the diffusion coefficients and its dependence on the coefficients of restitution is widely analyzed across the parameter space of the system. The results obtained in this paper extend previous works carried out in the tracer limit (vanishing mole fraction of one of the species) by some of the authors of the present paper.

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arXiv2011

Class of dilute granular Couette flows with uniform heat flux

In a recent paper [F. Vega Reyes et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 028001 (2010)] we presented a preliminary description of a special class of steady Couette flows in dilute granular gases. In all flows of this class the viscous heating is exactly balanced by inelastic cooling. This yields a uniform heat flux and a linear relationship between the local temperature and flow velocity. The class (referred to as the LTu class) includes the Fourier flow of ordinary gases and the simple shear flow of granular gases as special cases. In the present paper we provide further support for this class of Couette flows by following four different routes, two of them being theoretical (Grad's moment method of the Boltzmann equation and exact solution of a kinetic model) and the other two being computational (molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations of the Boltzmann equation). Comparison between theory and simulations shows a very good agreement for the non-Newtonian rheological properties, even for quite strong inelasticity, and a good agreement for the heat flux coefficients in the case of Grad's method, the agreement being only qualitative in the case of the kinetic model.

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arXiv2010

Segregation by thermal diffusion in granular shear flows

Segregation by thermal diffusion of an intruder immersed in a sheared granular gas is analyzed from the (inelastic) Boltzmann equation. Segregation is induced by the presence of a temperature gradient orthogonal to the shear flow plane and parallel to gravity. We show that, like in analogous systems without shear, the segregation criterion yields a transition between upwards segregation and downwards segregation. The form of the phase diagrams is illustrated in detail showing that they depend sensitively on the value of gravity relative to the thermal gradient. Two specific situations are considered: i) absence of gravity, and ii) homogeneous temperature. We find that both mechanisms (upwards and downwards segregation) are stronger and more clearly separated when compared with segregation criteria in systems without shear.

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arXiv2010

An exact solution of the inelastic Boltzmann equation for the Couette flow with uniform heat flux

In the steady Couette flow of a granular gas the sign of the heat flux gradient is governed by the competition between viscous heating and inelastic cooling. We show from the Boltzmann equation for inelastic Maxwell particles that a special class of states exists where the viscous heating and the inelastic cooling exactly compensate each other at every point, resulting in a uniform heat flux. In this state the (reduced) shear rate is enslaved to the coefficient of restitution $α$, so that the only free parameter is the (reduced) thermal gradient $ε$. It turns out that the reduced moments of order $k$ are polynomials of degree $k-2$ in $ε$, with coefficients that are nonlinear functions of $α$. In particular, the rheological properties ($k=2$) are independent of $ε$ and coincide exactly with those of the simple shear flow. The heat flux ($k=3$) is linear in the thermal gradient (generalized Fourier's law), but with an effective thermal conductivity differing from the Navier--Stokes one. In addition, a heat flux component parallel to the flow velocity and normal to the thermal gradient exists. The theoretical predictions are validated by comparison with direct Monte Carlo simulations for the same model.

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arXiv2010

Non-Newtonian granular hydrodynamics. What do the inelastic simple shear flow and the elastic Fourier flow have in common?

We describe a special class of steady Couette flows in dilute granular gases admitting a non-Newtonian hydrodynamic description for strong dissipation. The class occurs when viscous heating exactly balances inelastic cooling, resulting in a uniform heat flux. It includes the Fourier flow of ordinary gases and the simple or uniform shear flow (USF) of granular gases as special cases. The rheological functions have the same values as in the USF and generalized thermal conductivity coefficients can be identified. These points are confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations, Monte Carlo simulations of the Boltzmann equation, and analytical results from Grad's 13-moment method.

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arXiv2010

The effects of forcing and dissipation on phase transitions in thin granular layers

Recent experimental and computational studies of vibrated thin layers of identical spheres have shown transitions to ordered phases similar to those seen in equilibrium systems. Motivated by these results, we carry out simulations of hard inelastic spheres forced by homogenous white noise. We find a transition to an ordered state of the same symmetry as that seen in the experiments, but the clear phase separation observed in the vibrated system is absent. Simulations of purely elastic spheres also show no evidence for phase separation. We show that the energy injection in the vibrated system is dramatically different in the different phases, and suggest that this creates an effective surface tension not present in the equilibrium or randomly forced systems. We do find, however, that inelasticity suppresses the onset of the ordered phase with random forcing, as is observed in the vibrating system, and that the amount of the suppression is proportional to the degree of inelasticity. The suppression depends on the details of the energy injection mechanism, but is completely eliminated when inelastic collisions are replaced by uniform system-wide energy dissipation.

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arXiv2009

Modified Sonine approximation for granular binary mixtures

We evaluate in this work the hydrodynamic transport coefficients of a granular binary mixture in $d$ dimensions. In order to eliminate the observed disagreement (for strong dissipation) between computer simulations and previously calculated theoretical transport coefficients for a monocomponent gas, we obtain explicit expressions of the seven Navier-Stokes transport coefficients with the use of a new Sonine approach in the Chapman-Enskog theory. Our new approach consists in replacing, where appropriate in the Chapman-Enskog procedure, the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution weight function (used in the standard first Sonine approximation) by the homogeneous cooling state distribution for each species. The rationale for doing this lies in the fact that, as it is well known, the non-Maxwellian contributions to the distribution function of the granular mixture become more important in the range of strong dissipation we are interested in. The form of the transport coefficients is quite common in both standard and modified Sonine approximations, the distinction appearing in the explicit form of the different collision frequencies associated with the transport coefficients. Additionally, we numerically solve by means of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method the inelastic Boltzmann equation to get the diffusion and the shear viscosity coefficients for two and three dimensions. As in the case of a monocomponent gas, the modified Sonine approximation improves the estimates of the standard one, showing again the reliability of this method at strong values of dissipation.

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arXiv2009

Mass transport of impurities in a moderately dense granular gas

Transport coefficients associated with the mass flux of impurities immersed in a moderately dense granular gas of hard disks or spheres described by the inelastic Enskog equation are obtained by means of the Chapman-Enskog expansion. The transport coefficients are determined as the solutions of a set of coupled linear integral equations recently derived for polydisperse granular mixtures [V. Garzó, J. W. Dufty and C. M. Hrenya, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 76}, 031304 (2007)]. With the objective of obtaining theoretical expressions for the transport coefficients that are sufficiently accurate for highly inelastic collisions, we solve the above integral equations by using the second Sonine approximation. As a complementary route, we numerically solve by means of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method (DSMC) the inelastic Enskog equation to get the kinetic diffusion coefficient $D_0$ for two and three dimensions. We have observed in all our simulations that the disagreement, for arbitrarily large inelasticity, in the values of both solutions (DSMC and second Sonine approximation) is less than 4%. Moreover, we show that the second Sonine approximation to $D_0$ yields a dramatic improvement (up to 50%) over the first Sonine approximation for impurity particles lighter than the surrounding gas and in the range of large inelasticity. The results reported in this paper are of direct application in important problems in granular flows, such as segregation driven by gravity and a thermal gradient. We analyze here the segregation criteria that result from our theoretical expressions of the transport coefficients.

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arXiv2008

Effect of inelasticity on the phase transitions of a thin vibrated granular layer

We describe an experimental and computational investigation of the ordered and disordered phases of a vibrating thin, dense granular layer composed of identical metal spheres. We compare the results from spheres with different amounts of inelasticity and show that inelasticity has a strong effect on the phase diagram. We also report the melting of an ordered phase to a homogeneous disordered liquid phase at high vibration amplitude or at large inelasticities. Our results show that dissipation has a strong effect on ordering and that in this system ordered phases are absent entirely in highly inelastic materials.

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