About the vertical velocity profile of forced silos.

D. MAZA; M. A. MADRID

CABA

Congreso; Statphys 27; 2019

According to The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the world annual production of cereals is approximately 2x10^9 tons. Worldwide post-harvest losses due to problems in the handling, transport, and storage of products are estimated between 10% and 25% of the total, generating millionaire losses when not human.Improving knowledge of the dynamics of granular materials can not only avoid material losses but also improve the handling which can generate significant savings in the energy used to manipulate them.In the present work, we study how the velocity profile as a function of the height along the axis of a silo. We show how is this profile modified by the presence of a piston pushing the free surface of the grains to improve the flow rate.