Continuously heated granular gas of elongated particles

Abstract

Some years ago, Harth et al. experimentally explored the steady state dynamics of a heated granular gas of rod-like particles in microgravity [K. Harth et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 144102 (2013)]. Here, we report numerical results that quantitatively reproduce their experimental findings and provide additional insight into the process. A system of sphero-cylinders is heated by the vibration of three flat side walls, resulting in one symmetrically heated direction, one non-symmetrically heated direction, and one non-heated direction. In the non-heated direction, the speed distribution follows a stretched exponential distribution $$p(\upsilon )\, \propto \,{\rm{exp}}\left( { - {{\left( {{{\left| \upsilon \right|} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\left| \upsilon \right|} C}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} C}} \right)}^{1.5}}} \right)$$. In the symmetrically heated direction, the velocity statistics at low speeds is similar but it develops pronounced exponential tails at high speeds. In the non-symmetrically heated direction (not accessed experimentally), the distribution also follows $$p(\upsilon )\, \propto \,{\rm{exp}}\left( { - {{\left( {{{\left| \upsilon \right|} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\left| \upsilon \right|} C}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} C}} \right)}^{1.5}}} \right)$$ , but the velocity statistics of rods moving toward the vibrating wall resembles the indirectly excited direction, whereas the velocity statistics of those moving away from the wall resembles the direct excited direction.