Constitutive relations for a planar, simple shear flow of rough disks (Q1081420)

Stresses developed in a rapid simple shear flow of disks are quantified. Collisional momentum transfer is considered to be the dominant stress generating mechanism. The disks are inelastic and frictional. The restitution coefficient and the coefficient of friction together determine the transfer of momentum and dissipation of energy during a collision. The frictional coefficient generates and maintains a rotational motion of disks. The total fluctuation motion of disks consists of two translational modes and one rotational mode. The rotational mode is found to depend on both the restitution and the friction coefficient. Equipartition of energy among all modes of motion is absent. The mean rotation depends only on the mean flow gradient. The analysis assumes fluctuation modes all have constant magnitudes. Comparison with a computer simulated disk flow shows good agreement. This implies that the distribution of velocity magnitude may not be crucial to the quantification of stresses.