Experimental and computational analysis of granular material flow in model silos

Abstract

The study described here was undertaken to explore the phenomena occurring in silo problems. For these problems, no experimental results exist, but simpler tests for validation can be used. This book identifies theses phenomena which are presented in two chapters. The first presents experimental investigations of granular material flows with a detailed description of phenomena occurring during filling and discharge processes in silo models. It also pertains to empirical descriptions of velocities and flow rates considered via statistical analysis. The experiments were conducted using a Digital Particle Image Velocimetry Optical Flow (DPIV OF). Applying this innovative technique allowed the obtaining and identification of a large volume of quantitative data characterizing the granular material flow, such as, velocities patterns within granular material, outflow rate, deformations, strains, dilation and stagnant zones boundaries; especially in the eccentric modes of flows for the plane silo models. The chapter also includes the analysis on verification of a Radial Flow assumption. The new mathematical description of kinematic parameter b for radial flow was applied with new formula for defining velocities in radial flows. Furthermore, the DPIV technique was applied to verify mass and volume conservation in the flowing material. The results obtained in this chapter serve as the basis of further verification via numerical simulations made by the Discrete Element Method (DEM).