Experimental results in a silo model with corrugated steel walls and eccentric hoppers

PINILLA A.; FUENTES, JOSÉ M.; AYUGA, E.; MARCOS A. MADRID; AYUGA, F.; GALLEGO, EUTIQUIO

2023 ASABE Annual International Meeting

American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers

Año: 2023

Steel silos with corrugated walls are widely used to reduce the weight of the steel used for their construction,while eccentric hoppers are used sometimes for facilitating the discharge process of the silo. Previous numerically resultsobtained by several authors suggest that the outlet eccentricity can affect the circumferential distribution of pressures exertedby the stored material over the silo wall and the discharge flow. However, very few experimental tests have been reported inliterature with regards to eccentric hoppers or corrugated walls.A silo model with corrugated steel walls and a square cross section has been constructed, with different bottomconfigurations (flat bottom and hoppers with 0%, 50% and 100% outlet eccentricity). The vertical section of the silo modelconsisted of two independent modules, each one with 0.75 m height and 0.45 m width and length. The depth and wavelengthof corrugations were 13 mm and 75 mm, respectively. All solutions had a square outlet with 0.06 m, and every hopper had0.175 m height.In addition, two square test panels with 0.15 m length were placed at the corrugated walls for each vertical section of thesilo model, while wood pellets were used as the bulk material and two filling methods (central and distributed) were checked.It was found that outlet eccentricity affects the distribution of wall pressures, as well as the discharge rate of material.Distribute filling method tend to increase the flow rate during discharge.