Extremal collision sequences of particles on a line: Optimal transmission of kinetic energy - art. no. 021505

The transmission of kinetic energy through chains of inelastically collidin g spheres is investigated for the case of constant coefficient of restituti on epsilon =const and impact-velocity-dependent coefficient epsilon (v) for viscoelastic particles. We derive a theory for the optimal distribution of particle masses which maximize the energy transfer along the chain and che ck it numerically. We found that for epsilon= const, the mass distribution is a monotonous function which does not depend on the value of epsilon. In contrast, for epsilon (v) the mass distribution reveals a pronounced maximu m, depending on the particle properties and on the chain length. The system investigated demonstrates that even for small and simple systems, the velo city dependence of the coefficient of restitution may lead to new effects w ith respect to the same systems under the simplifying approximation epsilon = const.