Computational simulation of grain flow in silos

Abstract

Granular materials need storage in suitable structures, such as the silos. The knowledge of the material behavior allows a better understanding of important phenomena that occurs inside it, for example, its discharge. This paper shows a computational model developed by means of the technique known as cellular automata to simulate both the creation of a granular dense package, but porous, in a silo, or its posterior discharge, generating a granular material flow through the silo discharge outlet. The data created by simulation were validated with the help of an experimental device of low cost, a bi-dimensional silo that allows setting up the outlet inclination, which was built in acrylic. For the founded results, a linear regression was possible to be performed, observing a strong correlation between the experimental and simulated data and the linear fit. Thus, the results show an acceptable fit between the computational model and the experimental data.