The revised Enskog theory for inelastic hard spheres is considered as a model for rapid flow granular media at finite densities. A normal solution is obtained via the Chapman-Enskog method for states near the local homogeneous cooling state. The analysis is performed to first order in the spatial gradients, allowing identification of the Navier-Stokes order transport coefficients associated with the heat and momentum fluxes. In addition, the cooling rate is calculated to first order in the gradients and expressed in terms of the transport coefficients. The transport coefficients are determined from linear integral equations analogous to those for elastic collisions. The solubility conditions for these equations are confirmed and the transport coefficients are calculated as explicit functions of the density and restitution coefficient using a Sonine polynomial expansion. The results are not limited to small dissipation. Finally, the analysis is repeated using a simpler kinetic model. Excellent agreement is obtained with the results from the revised Enskog equation.

The homogeneous cooling state for a binary mixture of inelastic hard spheres is studied using the Enskog kinetic theory. In the same way as for the one-component fluid, we propose a scaling solution in which the time dependence of the distribution functions occurs entirely through the temperature of the mixture. A surprising result is that the (partial) temperatures of each species are different, although their cooling rates are the same. Approximate forms for the distribution functions are constructed to leading order in a Sonine polynomial expansion showing a small deviation from Maxwellian, similar to that for the one-component case. The temperatures and overall cooling rate are calculated in terms of the restitution coefficients, the reduced density, and the ratios of mass, concentration, and sizes.

Hydrodynamic equations for a binary mixture of inelastic hard spheres are derived from the Boltzmann kinetic theory. A normal solution is obtained via the Chapman-Enskog method for states near the local homogeneous cooling state. The mass, heat, and momentum fluxes are determined to first order in the spatial gradients of the hydrodynamic fields, and the associated transport coefficients are identified. In the same way as for binary mixtures with elastic collisions, these coefficients are determined from a set of coupled linear integral equations. Practical evaluation is possible using a Sonine polynomial approximation, and is illustrated here by explicit calculation of the relevant transport coefficients: the mutual diffusion, the pressure diffusion, the thermal diffusion, the shear viscosity, the Dufour coefficient, the thermal conductivity, and the pressure energy coefficient. All these coefficients are given in terms of the restitution coefficients and the ratios of mass, concentration, and particle sizes. Interesting and new effects arise from the fact that the reference states for the two components have different partial temperatures, leading to additional dependencies of the transport coefficients on the concentration. The results hold for arbitrary degree of inelasticity and are not limited to specific values of the parameters of the mixture. Applications of this theory will be

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The Enskog kinetic theory is used as a starting point to model a suspension of solid particles in a viscous gas. Unlike previous efforts for similar suspensions, the gas-phase contribution to the instantaneous particle acceleration appearing in the Enskog equation is modelled using a Langevin equation, which can be applied to a wide parameter space (e.g. high Reynolds number). Attention here is limited to low Reynolds number flow, however, in order to assess the influence of the gas phase on the constitutive relations, which was assumed to be negligible in a previous analytical treatment. The Chapman–Enskog method is used to derive the constitutive relations needed for the conservation of mass, momentum and granular energy. The results indicate that the Langevin model for instantaneous gas–solid force matches the form of the previous analytical treatment, indicating the promise of this method for regions of the parameter space outside of those attainable by analytical methods (e.g. higher Reynolds number). The results also indicate that the effect of the gas phase on the constitutive relations for the solid-phase shear viscosity and Dufour coefficient is non-negligible, particularly in relatively dilute systems. Moreover, unlike their granular (no gas phase) counterparts, the shear viscosity in gas–solid systems is found to be zero in the dilute limit and the Dufour coefficient is found to be non-zero in the elastic limit.

In contrast to normal fluids, a granular fluid under shear supports a steady state with uniform temperature and density since the collisional cooling can compensate locally for viscous heating. It is shown that the hydrodynamic description of this steady state is inherently non-Newtonian. As a consequence, the Newtonian shear viscosity cannot be determined from experiments or simulation of uniform shear flow. For a given degree of inelasticity, the complete nonlinear dependence of the shear viscosity on the shear rate requires the analysis of the unsteady hydrodynamic behavior. The relationship to the Chapman-Enskog method to derive hydrodynamics is clarified using an approximate Grad's solution of the Boltzmann kinetic equation.

The linear integral equations defining the Navier-Stokes (NS) transport coefficients for polydisperse granular mixtures of smooth inelastic hard disks or spheres are solved by using the leading terms in a Sonine polynomial expansion. Explicit expressions for all the NS transport coefficients are given in terms of the sizes, masses, compositions, density and restitution coefficients. In addition, the cooling rate is also evaluated to first order in the gradients. The results hold for arbitrary degree of inelasticity and are not limited to specific values of the parameters of the mixture. Finally, a detailed comparison between the derivation of the current theory and previous theories for mixtures is made, with attention paid to the implication of the various treatments employed to date.

Motivated by the disagreement found at high dissipation between simulation data for the heat flux transport coefficients and the expressions derived from the Boltzmann equation by the standard first Sonine approximation [Brey et al., Phys. Rev. E 70, 051301 (2004); J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 17, S2489 (2005)], we implement in this paper a modified version of the first Sonine approximation in which the Maxwell-Boltzmann weight function is replaced by the homogeneous cooling state distribution. The structure of the transport coefficients is common in both approximations, the distinction appearing in the coefficient of the fourth cumulant a2. Comparison with computer simulations shows that the modified approximation significantly improves the estimates for the heat flux transport coefficients at strong dissipation. In addition, the slight discrepancies between simulation and the standard first Sonine estimates for the shear viscosity and the self-diffusion coefficient are also partially corrected by the modified approximation. Finally, the extension of the modified first Sonine approximation to the transport coefficients of the Enskog kinetic theory is presented.