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Extension of silo discharge model based on discrete element method

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Abstract

Silos are containers used by almost all fields of industry for storing granular materials and generally classified in two types: mass flow and funnel flow. One of the most important design parameter of these equipment is the discharge rate which depends on the flow mode. There are high numbers of analytical and empirical models used for determine this parameter, however none of them is suitable for both flow modes; moreover the accuracy of mass flow models is not acceptable. Recently a few numerical discharge models are made for certain geometries; but the applicability of these models in case of different flow modes was not examined. Aim of our work is the creation of an experimentally validated numerical discharge model based on others work and examination of this in term of different flow modes. We prove that our modified model is suitable for determine silos discharge rate independently from flow mode.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanics and Technical Drawing, Szent István University, Gödöllo, Hungary

    István Oldal & Ferenc Safranyik

Authors
  1. István Oldal
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  2. Ferenc Safranyik
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Correspondence to Ferenc Safranyik.

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Recommended by Associate Editor Gang-Won Jang

István Oldal (1977) received his M.S. degree of mechanical engineering in 2001, Ph.D. degree in 2007 from Szent István University (SZIU), Gödöllo, Hungary. He is now an associate professor at SZIU. The topic of his research is mechanics of granular materials.

Ferenc Safranyik (1988) received his B.S. and M.S. degree of mechanical engineering from Szent István University (SZIU), Gödöllo, Hungary in 2011 and 2013, respectively. He is now a Ph.D. student at SZIU, and he works in Hungarian Institute of Agricultural Engineering as research engineer. The topics of his dissertation are modeling of agricultural granular materials, focused on silos and discrete element modeling.

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Oldal, I., Safranyik, F. Extension of silo discharge model based on discrete element method. J Mech Sci Technol 29, 3789–3796 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-0825-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-0825-3

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