Shock formation and breaking in granular avalanches (Q972048)

The authors explore properties of shock wave solutions of the Gray-Thornton model for particle size segregation in granular avalanches. They give the criteria on smooth initial data under which a shock wave arises in the interior of avalanche. It is shown that shocks typically lose stability as they are sheared by the flow, giving way to a complex structure including a rarefaction wave interacted with a pair of shocks. The detailed description of this structure is given.