Why Granular Media Are, After All, Thermal
Soft Condensed Matter
2014-07-29 v1
Abstract
Granular media are considered "athermal", because the grains are too large to display Brownian type thermal fluctuations. Yet being macroscopic, every grain undergoes thermal expansion, possesses a temperature that may be measured with a thermometer, and consists of many, many internal degrees of freedom that in their sum do affect granular dynamics. Therefore, including them in a comprehensive approach to account for granular behavior entails crucial advantages. The pros and cons of thermal versus athermal descriptions are considered.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1407.7224,
title = {Why Granular Media Are, After All, Thermal},
author = {Yimin Jiang and Mario Liu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.7224},
year = {2014}
}