Experimental investigation on the gravity driven discharge of cohesive particles from a silo with two outlets--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Dai, L., Yuan, Z., Fan, F., & Gu, C. (2024). Experimental investigation on the gravity driven discharge of cohesive particles from a silo with two outlets. Particuology, 89, 11-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2023.10.016

Experimental investigation on the gravity driven discharge of cohesive particles from a silo with two outlets

Li Dai^a, Zhulin Yuan^b, Fengxian Fan ^{a c *}, Conghui Gu ^d

a School of Energy and Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
b Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
c Shanghai Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer in Power Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
d School of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China

10.1016/j.partic.2023.10.016

Volume 89, June 2024, Pages 11-21

Received 7 June 2023, Revised 26 October 2023, Accepted 31 October 2023, Available online 14 November 2023, Version of Record 5 December 2023.

E-mail: fanfengxian@usst.edu.cn

Highlights

• Gravity discharge of cohesive particles from a two-outlet silo was investigated.

• Effects of moisture content and filling height on discharge rate were explored.

• Effect of opening conditions on the discharge flow was intensively studied.

• Avalanche dynamics associated with the gravity discharge was examined.

• Mixing behavior and mixing index of discharge flow from the silo were evaluated.

Abstract

An experimental study on the gravity driven discharge of cohesive particles from a silo with two outlets was performed. The discharge behaviors under the conditions that a single outlet was open and two outlets were open were investigated by varying the moisture content of the particles and the filling height of the particles in the silo. The results show that the discharge rate of the cohesive particles increases gradually at the beginning, then almost keeps constant, and finally drops obviously. The discharge rate in case of two openings is around 1.1–1.6 times that in case of a single opening. Larger filling height leads to lower discharge rate in case of a single opening but results in higher discharge rate in case of two openings. Furthermore, the avalanche dynamics in case of a single opening was examined, and the mixing behavior of the cohesive particles was evaluated. It is observed that the discharge flow is promoted by the avalanche phenomenon in the silo, generating a general trend that the normalized mass of discharge increases with the filling height at higher moisture contents. In case of a single opening, the transition from mass flow to funnel flow favors the particle mixing, resulting in an increasing mixing index as the moisture content increases. In general, a better performance of mixing can be achieved in case of a single opening compared with in case of two openings. This study provides vital information for fundamental understanding of the gravity driven discharge of cohesive particles from the silo with multiple outlets.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Cohesive particles; Moisture content; Discharge rate; Avalanche; Mixing

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