Tracer diffusion in granular shear flows

TL;DR

This paper analyzes tracer diffusion in a granular gas under shear flow using kinetic theory, revealing anisotropic diffusion tensors influenced by dissipation and aligning with molecular dynamics simulations.

Contribution

It provides a first-order perturbation solution for the diffusion tensor in granular shear flows, incorporating arbitrary restitution coefficients and anisotropic effects.

Findings

Diffusion tensor elements depend on restitution coefficients and particle ratios.

Dissipation significantly affects diffusion tensor components.

Results agree with molecular dynamics simulations for self-diffusion cases.

Abstract

Tracer diffusion in a granular gas in simple shear flow is analyzed. The analysis is made from a perturbation solution of the Boltzmann kinetic equation through first order in the gradient of the mole fraction of tracer particles. The reference state (zeroth-order approximation) corresponds to a Sonine solution of the Boltzmann equation, which holds for arbitrary values of the restitution coefficients. Due to the anisotropy induced in the system by the shear flow, the mass flux defines a diffusion tensor $D_{ij}$ instead of a scalar diffusion coefficient. The elements of this tensor are given in terms of the restitution coefficients and mass and size ratios. The dependence of the diffusion tensor on the parameters of the problem is illustrated in the three-dimensional case. The results show that the influence of dissipation on the elements $D_{ij}$ is in general quite important, even for moderate values of the restitution coefficients. In the case of self-diffusion (mechanically equivalent particles), the trends observed in recent molecular dynamics simulations are similar to those obtained here from the Boltzmann kinetic theory.