Effective potentials of dissipative hard spheres in granular matter

Eur Phys J E Soft Matter. 2009 Apr;28(4):395-400. doi: 10.1140/epje/i2008-10432-2. Epub 2009 Mar 21.

Abstract

We present an experimental study of the spatial correlations of a quasi-two-dimensional dissipative gas kept in a non-static steady state via vertical shaking. From high temporal resolution images we obtain the Pair Distribution Function (PDF) for granular species with different restitution coefficients. Effective potentials for the interparticle interaction are extracted using the Ornstein-Zernike equation with the Percus-Yevick closure. From both the PDFs and the corresponding effective potentials, we find a clear increase of the spatial correlation at contact with the decreasing values of the restitution coefficient.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't