An event-driven molecular dynamics simulation of inelastic hard spheres contained in a cylinder and subject to strong vibration reproduces accurately experimental results [R. D. Wildman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3304 (2001)] for a system of vibrofluidized glass beads. In particular, we are able to obtain the velocity field and the density and temperature profiles observed experimentally. In addition, we show that the appearance of convection rolls is strongly influenced by the value of the sidewall-particle restitution coefficient. Suggestions for observing more complex convection patterns are proposed.

• Received 13 November 2001
• Publisher error corrected 8 October 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.064301