Density waves and $1/f$ density fluctuations in granular flow

Abstract

We simulate the granular flow in a narrow pipe with a lattice-gas automaton model. We find that the density in the system is characterized by two features. One is that spontaneous density waves propagate through the system with well-defined shapes and velocities. The other is that density waves are so distributed to make the power spectra of density fluctuations as $1/f^{\alpha}$ noise. Three important parameters make these features observable and they are energy dissipation, average density and the rougness of the pipe walls.