Plane shock waves and Haff's law in a granular gas

The Riemann problem of planar shock waves is analyzed for a dilute granular gas by solving Euler- and Navier-Stokes-order equations numerically. The density and temperature profiles are found to be asymmetric, with the maxima of both density and temperature occurring within the shock-layer. The density-peak increases with increasing Mach number and inelasticity, and is found to propagate at a steady speed at late times. The granular temperature at the upstream end of the shock decay according to Haff's law [$\theta(t)\sim t^{-2}$], but the downstream temperature decays faster than its upstream counterpart. The Haff's law seems to hold inside the shock up-to a certain time for weak shocks, but deviations occur for strong shocks. The time at which the maximum temperature deviates from Haff's law follows a power-law scaling with upstream Mach number and the restitution coefficient. The continual build-up of density inside the shock is discussed, the origin of which seems to be tied to a pressure instability in granular gases. It is shown that the granular energy equation must be `regularized' to arrest the maximum density, and the regularized hydrodynamic equations should be used for shock calculations (Reddy \& Alam, 2015, J. Fluid Mech., to be published).