Power Law Velocity Fluctuations Due to Inelastic Collisions in Numerically Simulated Vibrated Bed of Powder

Distribution functions of relative velocities among particles in a vibrated bed of powder are studied both numerically and theoretically. In the solid phase where granular particles remain near their local stable states, the probability distribution is Gaussian. On the other hand, in the fluidized phase, where the particles can exchange their positions, the distribution clearly deviates from Gaussian. This is interpreted with two analogies; aggregation processes and soft-to-hard turbulence transition in thermal convection. The non-Gaussian distribution is well-approximated by the t-distribution which is derived theoretically by considering the effect of clustering by inelastic collisions in the former analogy. 83.70.Fn, 47.27.-i, 02.70.Ns Typeset using REVT E X Granular matter are attracting much interest of physicists [1]. Among them, people extensively study vibrated bed of powder, which consists of a vessel filled with granular matter and a loud speaker to shake it. When the accel...