Loads on walls and inserts in a mass-flow silos

A finite element analysis has been carried out to investigate flow patterns and loads on silos either with a ralatively steep hopper, or with a shallow hopper but in the presence of an insert. A Lagrangian-Eulerian approach was first adopted to simulate the material flow pattern, with the precondition that mass flow was obtained. It was then attempted to predict the loads exerted by granular materials on the walls of such silos. The load on the insert was also simulated. Techniques such as the adoption of adaptive meshes and filleting along sharp corners were applied in the analysis to overcome the difficulties usually encountered with large deformations in the FEM and the mathematic singularity presented by the abruptness of geometry. Filleting proved to be necessary to bring down the pressure peak at the transition level. The insert took over a significant part of the loads. Comparison with the classic theories have confirmed that the loads predicted on the wall agree quite well with the theoretical results in the silo's cylinder section, but that differences exist in the hopper section; the difference is greater when the hopper is shallower. It has also shown the limitations of predicting flow patterns of granular materials with the traditional elastic-plastic model; a more advanced model is needed.