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The inelastic hard dimer gas: a nonspherical model for granular matter
Giulio Costantini1, Umberto Marini Bettolo Marconi, Galina Kalibaeva
1Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Camerino and Instituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia (INFM), Unità di Camerino, Via Madonna delle Carceri, I-62032, Camerino, Italy. guilio.constantini@unicam.it
The Journal of Chemical Physics
|June 11, 2005
Summary
This study investigates inelastic smooth hard dimers, finding their kinetic energy decays over time. Remarkably, these nonspherical particles follow Haff's cooling law, similar to hard spheres.
Area of Science:
- Statistical mechanics
- Soft matter physics
- Computational physics
Background:
- Dissipative systems without external driving forces lack stationary states.
- Inelastic hard sphere systems exhibit well-studied relaxational dynamics.
- Previous methods exist for simulating rigid elastic bodies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the dynamics of a two-dimensional gas of inelastic smooth hard dimers.
- To generalize simulation methods for rigid bodies to inelastic systems.
- To analyze the energy decay and velocity distributions of these dimers.
Main Methods:
- Generalization of a holonomic constraint method for rigid body dynamics.
- Derivation of inelastic dimer collision rules.
- Event-driven simulation to solve the system's dynamics.
Main Results:
- The total kinetic energy of inelastic dimers decays over time.
- Haff's homogeneous cooling law (t^-2) is observed for these nonspherical particles.
- The ratio of rotational to translational kinetic energy was studied.
Conclusions:
- Inelastic hard dimers exhibit a homogeneous cooling process analogous to hard spheres.
- The system's dynamics are characterized by decay constants and scaling velocity distributions.
- Nonspherical particles can adhere to established cooling laws in dissipative systems.