Comparison of experimental results of X-ray tomography and DEM simulations for mass flow process in silo

Maciej Niedostatkiewicza, Krzysztof Grudzienb

aDepartment of Building and Material Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering,

GdanskUniversity of Technology, Poland

bInstitute of Applied Computer Science, Lodz University of Technology, Poland

Abstract

The knowledge of the value of volume changes during silo emptying process is very important not only due to technological aspects, but mainly in case of the safety reasons. The measurement of the changes of the material concentration during time enables to control the accuracy of silo unloading and leads to ensure safety of the maintanceof the container?s structure and safety the surrounding of the silo. Application of the non-invasive methods for bulk solid control flow is very expensive and the results are sometimes very difficult for interpretation. For the primary interpretation the behaviour of the bulk solid, the numerical simulation of the flow is very useful. The aim of the paper is to compare the result received from test with using X-ray tomography with simulation performed with Discrete Element Method commonly called DEM. The influence of wall roughness is taken into account, the preliminary comparison of tests and the results of the simulations are performed.

Keywords: X-ray tomography; volume changes; granular material; silo; Discrete Element Method