Free Cooling of a Granular Gas of Rodlike Particles in Microgravity

Granular gases as dilute ensembles of particles in random motion are at the basis of elementary structure-forming processes in the Universe, involved in many industrial and natural phenomena, and also excellent models to study fundamental statistical dynamics. The essential difference to molecular gases is the energy dissipation in particle collisions. Its most striking manifestation is the so-called granular cooling, the gradual loss of mechanical energy E(t) in the absence of external excitation. We report an experimental study of homogeneous cooling of three-dimensional granular gases in microgravity. The asymptotic scaling E(t)∝t^{-2} obtained by Haff's minimal model [J. Fluid Mech. 134, 401 (1983)JFLSA70022-112010.1017/S0022112083003419] proves to be robust, despite the violation of several of its central assumptions. The shape anisotropy of the grains influences the characteristic time of energy loss quantitatively but not qualitatively. We compare kinetic energies in the individual degrees of freedom and find a slight predominance of translational motions. In addition, we observe a preferred rod alignment in the flight direction, as known from active matter or animal flocks.