A numerical program is developed to simulate an assembly of inelastic
frictional spheres inside a control volume undergoing rapid shearing m
otion induced by the top and bottom moving periodic boundaries. A stic
king-sliding collision model is used to emulate binary collisions of r
eal particles. After the flow has reached a steady state, ensemble ave
rages of macroscopic properties such as translational and rotational g
ranular temperatures, and kinetic and collisional stresses at differen
t solids concentrations are obtained. The present results are compared
with previous theoretical, numerical and experimental works, and favo
urable agreement is found among them. The simulation results show that
the stresses are anisotropic and decrease with decreasing coefficient
of restitution and increasing friction coefficient. At high solids fr
action, above about 0.5, there exists a critical concentration where t
he layering effects of particles, the formation of high-density micros
tructures and the increase in correlation of particle velocities are t
he major causes of abrupt changes in flow properties.