Visualization of collisional substructure in granular shock waves.
We study shock wave formation and propagation in an experimental vertically driven quasi-two-dimensional granular gas. We measure the moments of the single particle velocity distribution as a function of space and time. The space-time fields of the velocity moments show acoustic waves with a serrated substructure on the scale of a particle diameter. We show that this substructure is the result of collisional transport in which sequential collisions each transport momentum and energy by one particle diameter.
Perez
John A
JA
Department of Physics, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut 06459, USA.
Kachuck
Samuel B
SB
Voth
Greg A
GA