Mechanics of collisional motion of granular materials. Part 4. Expansion wave (Q4354487)

[For part I see the first two authors, ibid. 282, 75-114 (1995); for part II see the first two authors, \textit{L. Moldavsky} and \textit{M. Fichman}, ibid. 295, 349-382 (1995); for part III see the authors, ibid. 316, 29-51 (1996; Zbl 0876.76069).] The problem of expansion into a vacuum of a semi-infinite layer composed of chaotically moving inelastic rough spherical particles is solved analytically. A variant of the matched asymptotic expansion scheme is used to obtain a matched composite solution, which is valid for both small and large times in the wave head, wave tail and intermediate domains of the disturbed part of the layer. We study the effects of granular initial energy and particle collisonal properties on their hydrodynamic velocity, temperature, density and pressure in the limit of low initial density of the granular gas. The ultimate escape energy and momentum (i.e. those achieved for long times by the expanding part of the layer) are shown to be finite quantities, dependent on the particle restitution coefficient, roughness and the initial granular temperature.