SPATIAL CORRELATIONS IN DILUTE GRANULAR FLOWS - A KINETIC-MODEL STUDY

The development of spatial correlations in the hydrodynamic fields of a freely evolving granular fluid is studied. The analysis is based on a model kinetic theory for dilute granular gases, which includes an eq uation for the pair correlation function. For small inelasticity, the results agree with those derived previously from fluctuating hydrodyna mics, and also with preliminary calculations using ring kinetic theory for inelastic hard spheres. A critical discussion of the domain of va lidity of a perturbative calculation of the hydrodynamic modes is give n. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-6631(98)02311-3].