Applications of the kinetic theory for a model of a confined quasi-two dimensional granular mixture: Stability analysis and thermal diffusion segregation

The Boltzmann kinetic theory for a model of a confined quasi-two dimensional granular mixture derived previously Garzó et al., “Navier–Stokes transport coefficients for a model of a confined quasi-two dimensional granular binary mixture,” Phys. Fluids 33, 023310 (2021) is considered further to analyze two different problems. First, a linear stability analysis of the hydrodynamic equations with respect to the homogeneous steady state (HSS) is carried out to identify the conditions for stability as functions of the wave vector, the coefficients of restitution, and the parameters of the mixture. The analysis, which is based on the results obtained by solving the Boltzmann equation by means of the Chapman–Enskog method to first order in spatial gradients, takes into account the (nonlinear) dependence of the transport coefficients and the cooling rate on the coefficients of restitution and applies in principle to arbitrary values of the concentration, and the mass and diameter ratios. In contrast to the results obtained in the conventional inelastic hard sphere (IHS) model, the results show that all the hydrodynamic modes are stable so that the HSS is linearly stable with respect to long enough wavelength excitations. On the other hand, this conclusion agrees with previous stability analysis performed in earlier studies for monocomponent granular gases. As a second application, segregation induced by both a thermal gradient and gravity is studied. A segregation criterion based on the dependence of the thermal diffusion factor Λ on the parameter space of the mixture is derived. In the absence of gravity, the results indicate that Λ is always positive, and hence, the larger particles tend to accumulate near the cold plate. However, when gravity is present, our results show the transition between Λ0 (larger particles tend to move toward the cold plate) to Λ0 (larger particles tend to move toward the hot plate) by varying the parameters of the system (masses, sizes, composition, and coefficients of restitution). Comparison with previous results derived from the IHS model is carried out.