Silo Discharge

Oral Presentation at the 7th World Congress on Particle Technology (WCPT7), Beijing China.

Bulk handling of powders and granular solids is common in many industries and often gives rise to handling difficulties especially when the material exhibits complex cohesive behavior. For example, high storage stresses in a silo can lead to high cohesive strength of the stored solid, which may in turn cause blockages such as ratholing or arching near the outlet during discharge. This paper deploys the Discrete Element Method to study the discharge of a granular solid from a flat-bottomed silo with varying levels of cohesion and varying levels of internal friction which arises from a combination of particle interlocking and contact friction (sliding and rolling).

Experimental characterisation and numerical modelling of iron ore fines. A new adhesive contact model (EEPA model) is developed and used to simulate cohesive iron ore fines and numerically investigate cohesive silo discharge.