Journal de Physique II

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DOI: 10.1051/jp2:1993141
J. Phys. II France 3 (1993) 427-433

On the thermodynamics of granular media

H.J. Herrmann

Höchstleistungsrechenzentrum, KFA, 5170 Jülich, Germany

(Received 8 February 1993, accepted 16 February 1993)

Abstract
A thermodynamic formulation for moving granular material is proposed. The fluctuations due to the constant flux and dissipation of energy are controlled in a "granular" ensemble by a pressure $\mathfrak{p}$ ("compression") which is conjugate to a contact volume ("contactopy"). The corresponding response function ("dissipativity") describes how dissipation increases with $\mathfrak{p}$ and should serve to identify the fluidization transition and 1/f noise. In the granular ensemble one can consider the granular medium as a gas of elastically colliding particles and define a "granular" temperature and other standard thermodynamic quantities.