Kinetic theory for binary granular mixtures: Some applications
V. Garzo

Departamento de Fisica, Universidad de Extremadura, E-06071, Badajoz Spain

Abstract: Many features of granular media can be modeled by a fluid of hard spheres with inelastic collisions. Under rapid flow conditions, the sample of grains resembles a granular gas so that binary collisions prevail and kinetic theory tools can be a quite useful tool to analyze granular flows. In the rapid flow regime, the macroscopic behavior of grains can be described through hydrodynamic balance equations for the densities of mass, momentum and energy. At low density, a fundamental basis for the derivation of hydrodynamic equations and explicit expressions for the transport coefficients appearing in them is provided by the Boltzmann equation conveniently modified to account for inelastic binary collisions. The goal of this talk is to give an overview of some recent advances made for binary granular gases by using the Boltzmann kinetic theory. Some of the results will cover aspects such as energy nonequipartition, transport properties, instabilities, violations of the Onsager reciprocal relations and of the Einstein relation, segregation or mixing, non-Newtonian properties,... In some cases, the analytical results will be compared with Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations, showing the reliability of kinetic theory to describe granular flows even for strong dissipation.