EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON OVERPRESSURES IN A SCALE MODEL OF SIDEDRAW SILO DURING EMPTYING

摘要

The dynamic pressure on silo walls during emptying is related to the way of emptying and flow pattern of the storage materials. Therefore, it has always been an important and fundamental issue to guarantee the safety of storage facilities through improving the way of emptying and controlling the flow pattern. In this paper, three silo models with different emptying processes, including sidedraw emptying with and without chutes and bottom center discharging, are tested. Both static pressure and the dynamic pressure are measured by the sensors distributed along the silo circumference at different depth. The maximum overpressure coefficient for different models is assessed, which reaches the peak value at a particular depth for the point farthest away from the discharging port. It is concluded that the sidedraw silo with chutes is a better choice if the overpressure phenomenon is the concern.