Are Temperature and other Thermodynamics Variables efficient Concepts for describing Granular Gases and/or Flows ?

Abstract

Granular flows and vibro-fluidised granular gases have been extensively studied recently; most of the theoretical analyses and the experimental descriptions use temperature and other thermodynamics concepts. However, taking the very simple case of a vibro-fluidised gas made of identical particles, we show the lack of efficiency of such concepts for the understanding of the physics of such systems. This results from both (i) the fact that the vibrator does not transmit the same amount of energy to each particle, but an amount which depends on its mass and/or its size and (ii) from the fact that it is a strongly dissipative medium. We conclude that most experimental device works rather as velostat as a thermostat. Pacs # : 5.40 ; 45.70 ; 62.20 ; 83.70.Fn