Energy Dissipation, Clustering, and

Velocity Distribution of a One-

Dimensional
Freely-Cooling Granular Gas:
A Computer Simulation

Julius F. Madrid
Meriska Monica F. Paglinawan
 OUTLINE
I. Abstract
II. Introduction
III. Related Literature and Studies
IV. Methodology
V. Results and Discussion
VI. Conclusions and Recommendations
 Abstract
This study investigated the energy decay and the cluster evolution in time

of a freely-cooling one-dimensional granular gas. On the idealization of

Inelastic Hard Sphere model (IHS), the computer simulated the inelastic

collision of granular gases. It is supposed that the relative velocity of two

colliding particles is reduced by a factor r, the coefficient of restitution,

where 0 ≤ r ≤ 1. This paper concluded that energy dissipation increases as

r decreases in agreement to Haff’s Law (1/t2). Energy dissipation with

different solid fraction, s, is also examined. It was found that as s

increases, early occurrence of inelastic collapse is observed. Lastly, the

authors determine the non-Gaussian and non-Maxwellian behavior of the

velocity distributions of a freely-cooling inelastic granular gas. This study

Chapter 1
Introduction
Granular materials
any materials which consist of grains or relatively small
particles.
LIQUID
SOLID
GAS
 Granular Gas

• A set of solid, macroscopic particles

or grains which are in relative motion
with respect to each other.
• Energy is not Dissipation of
conserved energy
• Far from equilibrium state
 FREELY
DRIVEN
COOLING
System
System
No energy input that will Energy is injected to
compensate the energy compensate the energy
loss. loss. Therefore equation of
state is possible
Behavior of Granular Gas
DISSIPATIVE
ENERGY

VELOCITY
INELASTIC
COLLISION

DISTRIBUTION
CLUSTERING

INELASTIC
COLLAPSE
 1.1 Objectives
The study will try to give insights on the behavior of a freely-

cooling one dimensional dissipative granular gas.

Clustering and Energy Dissipation

•different coefficients of restitution, r

•different solid fractions

The study aims to report the velocity distribution of a freely-cooling

one dimensional dissipative granular gas

 1.2 Significance
•The study demonstrates the fundamental difference between granular gases and

molecular gases.

•The simulation results resolve outstanding issues concerning clustering and

velocity distributions in freely cooling granular gases.

•Particularly, the established velocity distribution is noteworthy because this single

particle distribution function is often sufficient to characterize a system that is far from

equilibrium (equation of state is not possible)

•It also provides a connection between granular gases and hydrodynamic theory

of the formulation of large scale structure in the universe.

 1.3 Scope and
Limitation
The study deals with the freely-
cooling case of a one-dimensional
granular gas. There are no other forces
that interact with the ensemble of
particles. The behavior observed is
limited only to the effect of varying
degree of inelasticity as well as to
varying solid fraction. Lastly velocity
distribution of a freely-cooling granular
gas is obtained.
Chapter 2
 RELATED LITERATURE
AND STUDIES
• Inelastic Hard Sphere (IHS) model [3-4, 12-19]
where there are no attractive forces between
particles but in each collision energy is lost .

• Many one dimensional gas systems [2-3, 12-17,

20-26] were studied since 1D idealization makes
it possible the easy implementation.

• The dynamics of granular gas is completely

determined by pure mechanical collisions of its
particles.
 RELATED LITERATURE
AND STUDIES
• Inelastic Hard Sphere (IHS) model [3-4, 12-19]
where there are no attractive forces between
particles but in each collision energy is lost .

• Many one dimensional gas systems [2-3, 12-17,

20-26] were studied since 1D idealization makes
it possible the easy implementation.

• The dynamics of granular gas is completely

determined by pure mechanical collisions of its
particles.
• In the case of inelastic collapse, there is no
attractive force between particles to cause
particle collisions.
• Remarkably, ‘‘inelastic collapse’’ also persists in
higher dimensions, where it produces dense
chainlike clusters, as shown in Fig. 2.1.

FIG. 2.1 A two-dimensional

simulation of hard disks
colliding inelastically in a
container with periodic
boundary conditions. The
line of particles that are
solid circles consists of
those that have undergone
‘‘inelastic collapse.’’
Adapted from McNamara
and Young (1994) [24].
• The study of dissipative granular gas permits to
consider the problem of inelastic collisions in its
generality. This rate of decay in hard-sphere
models is usually referred as the Haff’s Law [2, 4,
5,11,17,24] and is stated as the energy is
decaying proportional to t-2.

• Since this paper limits only the non-equilibrium

system of particles equation of state is not
possible, instead velocity distribution of the
particles is exploited to describe the system.
Many studies reported a non-Gaussian velocity
distribution for a granular gas [8, 10, 13, 15, 26,
29].
 CHAPTER 3:
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Model
3.2 Simulation Details
3.3 Algorithm
• 3.1 Model
The model considers N point
particles of unit mass, m = 1,
confined in a line of length L = 1.
Periodic boundary condition was
implemented, so that the particles lie
on a circle of unit circumference.

Figure 3.1.1. Picture of the one-dimensional system of particles.

Periodic boundary conditions are used, and the particle’s diameter
depends on the input parameters of the simulation. Adapted from A
Study of Granular Gas using a One-Dimensional Model:Computer
Simulation by K. Gargar [14]
 
 When two particles i and j collide
in this one-dimensional system, the
final (primed) velocities are given in
terms of the initial (unprimed)
velocities by

and
Eqs. 1
Assumptions/Idealizations:
• Inelastic hard sphere
contact duration is implicitly zero
assures the conservation of mass in each collision

• Freely-Cooling System
Energy is continuously dissipated through each
collision and the system is freely evolved until the
system cools down and eventually the collision of
each particle stop
• Constant Coefficient of Restitution
assumption of a constant coefficient of restitution r =
const. is very helpful when performing calculations since it
simplifies the mathematics significantly.
situations arise when the assumption of a constant
coefficient of restitution is well justified, provided there is a
narrow velocity distribution.

• Identical Size and Mass

to simplify calculations
• 3.2 Simulation Details
The algorithm used is an event
driven algorithm.
-The collisions are the events which have to be treated
by the algorithm. The algorithm processes the events one
after the other. After a collision the positions and velocities
of the two involved particles are updated, the state of all
other particles remains unchanged.
 - The researcher utilized a high
programming language QBasic
(Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code, it is formerly known
simply as Basic) to do the simulation.
- QBasic was chosen because of
its high applicability to numerical
simulations and the syntax used in
writing the algorithm is easily
understood.
• 3.3 Algorithm
The algorithm developed for this
study is divided into five phases.
These are (a) initialization, (b)
calculation of minimum time, (c)
evolution of the system, (d) minimum
time update, and (e) finalization.
Figure 3.3.1 Flow chart of the simulation algorithm.
• 3.3.1 Initialization
Input parameters are use to
initialize the system. The system will
run accordingly to the value of inputs
supplied to the algorithm. These
input parameters are:

a. number of collision
b. number of particles
c. coefficient of restitution
d. solid fraction
• Also in the initialization phase, the
initial velocity and position of each
particle are randomly and uniformly
distributed respectively.
• 3.3.2 Calculation of minimum time
Event driven algorithm processes the events
(collision) particle by particle. The time of
collision is calculated for every adjacent pair of
particles in the system. The least time obtained
from the calculations was gathered and recorded.
Collision of particles will stop when the least time
of collision is already recorded.
• 3.3.3 Evolution of the system
The program calculates the total kinetic
energy of the system as well as the mean free
path.

• 3.3.4 Minimum time update

The time of collision obtained in phase two of
the program was updated every collision.
Updates of collision time for every particle was
searched and only the least time obtained from
this calculation was considered.
• 3.3.5 Finalization
The steps performed in phases 1-4 of the
algorithm was repeated 33 times to obtain
number of samples that will be treated
statistically to yield reliable results
• Data gathered were processed using
Microsoft Excel and SigmaPlot 10.0.
Scaling distribution function is used
for the obtained granular gas
distribution. Scaling technique is
adopted from the work of Brito and
Ernst [7], and is widely used in the
study of the velocity distribution of
granular gas.
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
and DISCUSSION
4.1 Kinetic Energy and Coefficient of
Restitution
4.2 Kinetic Energy and Solid Fraction
4.3 Inelastic Collapse and Clustering
4.4 Non-Gaussian Velocity Distribution
4.5 Agreement with Haff’s Law
• 4.1 Kinetic Energy and Coefficient of Restitution
Energy dissipation with different r is shown
below

The kinetic energy of the system as a function of number of collision for a freely-cooling inelastic
gas with different r. Number of particles is set to 210 , number of collision is 50000 and solid
fraction is set to 0.1
 
• It is evident that energy dissipates when
coefficients of restitution value are less
than 1. When the value of r is set to 1, it
is observed that there is no energy
dissipation as what is expected for a
perfectly elastic case. The energy decay
for a granular gas collision is
proportional to the degree of inelasticity.
As the value of r decreases, that is
approaching a perfectly inelastic limit,
the energy dissipation from initial
configuration to its final state intensifies.
• 4.2 Kinetic Energy and Solid Fraction
Figure 4.2.1 shows the effect of solid
fraction on the kinetic energy of the
granular gas system.

Figure 4.2.1. The kinetic energy of the system as a function of number of

collision for a freely-cooling inelastic gas with different s. Number of particles is set to
29, number of collision is 1200 and coefficient of restitution is set to 0.99.
• 4.3 Inelastic Collapse and Clustering
The energy of the granular gas system,
as evident on the results of the simulation,
continuously decreases as number of
collisions is raised. It is expected that it
will assume a constant value after the
particles experienced a finite amount of
collisions. This behavior is called the
inelastic collapse. The consequence of this
phenomenon is that after a certain amount
of collision, and the energy of the system
is already assuming a less fluctuating
value, clustering could occur.
• Figures 4.3.3 to 4.3.5 shows the evolution
of cluster as the number of collision is
raised. 1200, 25000 and 50000 number of
collisions are observed.

Figure 4.1.3. Position velocity plot for 32 particles after 1,200 collisions.
Coefficient of restitution is set to 0.3 and solid fraction is 0.1. A single cluster is
evident with these conditions.
Figure 2.3.4. Position velocity plot for 32 particles after 25,000
collisions. Coefficient of restitution is set to 0.3 and solid fraction
is 0.1. Number of clusters increase from the previous figure.
Figure 4.3.5. Position velocity plot for 32 particles after 50,000 collisions. Coefficient of
restitution is set to 0.3 and solid fraction is 0.1. Clustering is more evident and particles
tend to compress more in a single region in space.
• Saturation of clusters happens when
all the particles have the same
velocity and the total energy of the
system already attain its steady
value. This fact is evident on a freely-
cooling granular gas system. The
system cools down until the particles
tend to “crystallize” or assemble
together into a one huge cluster
having a constant value of kinetic
energy.
• 4.4 Non-Gaussian Velocity
Distribution
One basic property of ordinary gases is
the velocity distribution, which is a
Maxwell Boltzmann or a Gaussian
distribution. Granular gas systems
however deviate from the Gaussian
distribution that one would expect if the
collisions were elastic.
• Figure 4.4.1 shows the velocity distribution of
1024 granular gas particles simulated to 50000
collisions and with r = 0.1 as the degree of
inelasticity

Figure 4.4.1 Velocity distribution of the granular gas for N = 1024 and r = 0.1.
• It is shown that the velocity distribution
has a fluctuating right end-tail as
compared to a Maxwell Boltzmann
distribution which has an asymptotic flat
right-end tail.
• Fluctuating tails, as what is observed on
the simulated granular gas, corresponds to
the clusters of particles having different
velocities. This fluctuation is shown as a
peak on the distribution of granular gas.
• Emphasizing the non-Gaussianity of the
distribution is shown below
1.0

0.8
Relative Probability

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
-1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5

Velocity

Granular Gas Velocity Distribution

Gaussian Distribution

Figure 4.4.2. Scaled velocity distribution for the simulated granular gas. Scaling function used was
adapted from Brito and Ernst [3]. Gaussian fitting is inserted to the figure for the comparison of the
two velocity distributions. R2 for the fit is equal to 0.9887.
• The fact that the granular gas has a
non-Maxwellian and a non-Gaussian
distribution has the following
implication. If the velocity
distribution is not Gaussian, then
there are correlations between the
components of the velocity
distribution.
• Figure below shows the linearize
probability versus the velocity of the
granular gas.

Figure 4.4.3. . Linearize plot of the relative probability distribution function versus
velocity for the coefficient of restitution r=0.3 and N = 1024 particles. Strong
correlation was observed for extremely low velocities (v<0.2) and a fluctuating
correlation for high velocity particles (v>0.35).
 
• 4.5 Agreement with Haff’s Law
Dissipative collisions lead a decay
of kinetic energy as what is evident
on part 4.1. Haff’s law states that
energy dissipated are proportional to
t-2.
 83

82

81

Kinetic Energy
80

79

78

77

76
0.00116 0.00118 0.00120 0.00122 0.00124 0.00126 0.00128

Collision Time
Kinetic energy vs Collision Time
Col 6 vs Col 7

• Figure 4.5.1. Kinetic energy as a function of collision time for r = 0.8. Number of particles is 512 and solid
fraction is set to 0.1. Number of collision is set to 50000. A curve for Haff’s Law is fitted to compare the kinetic
energy decay curve with the law.

• Figure above shows the graph for the energy decay as a

function of time. Haff’s law is fitted to the curve to show the
comparison of the data obtained with the given law. Standard
deviation of 0.0284 is obtained for the energy decay curve as
fitted on the Haff’s Law curve.
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS

• 5.1 CONCLUSIONS
• 5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
• 5.1 CONCLUSIONS

b. It is concluded that granular gas deviates

considerably with the ordinary molecular
gases.
c. Granular gas behavior depends primarily
on two main parameters, namely:
coefficient of restitution and solid fraction.
It is observed that large values of
coefficient of restitution correspond to
large decay of energy when simulated at
a certain number of collisions. Also, it is
evident that, as the solid fraction of the
granular gas system takes a large value,
the granular gas system tends to collapse
(inelastic collapse) faster. Thus the
formation of cluster is faster on a dense
system.
c. It is also concluded that the velocity
distribution of a freely-cooling granular gas
system is non-Maxwellian and non-Gaussian.
d. The energy decay of the simulated
granular gas conforms to the Haff’s Law. It is
concluded that in the regime of the number of
collisions observed, the energy decay still
follows the t-2 rule.
• 5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

a. It is recommended that future studies

on the 2-D and 3-D case shall follow.
b. Study on granular gas wherein heat
inputs are applied is also suggested.
c. Utilization of super-fast computers is
highly recommended to deal with the long-
time behavior (such as 1015 number of
collisions) of the granular gas.
d. Analytical and experimental
studies are also suggested to further
understand the physics of granular
gas.
e. Detailed investigation on the
effect of varying coefficient of
restitution on the velocity distribution
of granular gas system is
recommended.
THANK YOU