Homogeneous dynamics in a vibrated granular monolayer

Abstract

A simple model of a vibrated granular monolayer is studied. It consists of inelastic hard spheres confined between two parallel hard plates separated at a distance smaller than twice the diameter of the particles. Both walls are elastic and one of them is vibrating in a sawtooth way. For low densities, a kinetic equation is proposed, from which closed evolution equations for the horizontal and vertical temperatures are derived, assuming spatial homogeneity and that the system is very thin. An excellent agreement between the theoretical predictions and molecular dynamics simulation results is obtained, both for the stationary values and for the dynamics of the temperatures.