Silo design

• Mech D (4’2)
• Roll no : 16311A03M4
16311A03M7
16311A03P7
 What is a Silo?
• In its Greek form, a silo means a “pit for holding grain”. Silos are widely used

in a great many different industries for storing a huge range of different

solids and liquids. The sizes of engineered silos may vary from capacities less

that ten tones to the largest containing as much as 100,000 tones. Small

silos usually do not present significant structural problems, but large silos

lead to very varied situations where many different aspects need careful

attention.

• Silos are generally circular in cross section, although different forms, such as

square or rectangular cross sections are commonly adopted for shallow bins

or bunkers.
STEPS TO DESIGN A SILO
STEP 1: DEFINE THE STORAGE REQUIREMENT
• Storage capacity:- How much material has to be stored
• Discharge frequency and rate:- How long will the bulk solid remain in the silo
• Temperature:- Is the material at higher or lower temperature compared
to the surroundings
Step 2: Understand the flow problems in silos
Step 3: Measure the properties of bulk solid and Silo liner

1. Calculate the wall friction angle

The tangent of wall friction angle is the coefficient of
friction between the solid and wall surface
We calculated the wall friction angle using
translational shear tester

Shear Cell or Jenike Shear Tester

• For the measurement of a point of a yield locus, the shear cell is filled with the
bulk solid specimen. After a manual pre-consolidation the specimen is pre-
sheared and then sheared to failure as outlined in the previous section. For the
next point of the yield locus, a new bulk solid specimen has to be prepared and
sheared.
• Although the Jenike Shear Tester is internationally recognized, from today’s
point of view a disadvantage might be the time required for a test (one to two
hours per yield locus; depending on the powder and the operator’s skill) during
which the operator has to be present. In addition, the manual pre-consolidation
of each specimen can be a source of measurement errors, and due to the
limited shear displacement (maximum: twice the thickness of the wall of the
upper ring) materials requiring too much deformation to attain steady-state flow
can hardly be tested.
• We will find Wall Angle Friction (Θx) through Yield Locus with Shear Tester.
EXPERIMENTAL DATA FROM SHEAR TESTER
4. Measure the internal angle of friction

The angle of internal friction is the measure of a unit powder

or soil to withstand a shear stress .It is the angle measured
between the normal force and the resultant force
We measure the internal angle of friction through Dietmar
Schulze ring shear tester

Shear Cell of a ring shear tester

Figure: Shear test procedure of a ring shear tester
Figure: Yield locus, analogy to uniaxial compression test
  

Chart: Yield locus generated through Mohr’s Circle from Ring Shear
 3. Determining the Conical hopper angle

Figure: Mass Flow Diagram (Conical Hopper)

Step 5:- Design of silo

Input parameters for design:

Stress tool
Cad design
DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF CHUTE
 INTRODUCTION TO CHUTE

• Chutes are typically used to guide the bulk material from

the silo’s hopper directly on to the conveyor belt.
• Here the material is dropped on the chute after that the
bulk material slides downwards.
• Part A is chute head or chute hood,
• part B is chute body or drop chute,

• Part C is chute’s exit

• Part D is Settling zone.

 TYPES OF CHUTES
Straight chute :- There are two types of straight chutes
Fast flow chute:- When the bulk solid material can be observed to flow down a steeply inclined
straight chute, the fast flow of the bulk material will occur.

Fig : Slow flow chute Fig: Fast flow chute Fig: Slow flow
chute

Slow flow chutes:- occurs if the chute is at an angle between the angle of repose and the angle
of internal friction of the material
 Curved chute:- As the bulk material enters the chute fast flow can be observed. The bulk
material accelerates and the bed thickness keeps on decreasing. Once the bulk material hits on
to the curve of the chute it starts to decelerate and the bed thickness begins to increase.
 COMMON PROBLEMS WITH CHUTES

• Plugging:- Here some of the particles flowing in the chute get stuck when the
angle of impact is equal to the wall angle of friction
• Spillage:- here the number of particles entering the chute will not be equal to the
number of particles leaving the chute, the material gets spilled.
• Dust control:- we should prevent the dust particles from entering the chute.
• Material degradation:- Here sometimes due to heavy impact pressure the chute
material coming in contact will experience material degradation.
• Belt tracking:- Here we should make sure that the outlet of the chute and the
receiver belt is properly aligned.
• Chute wear:- This too occurs due to high impact pressures caused when the flow
of bulk material is suddenly obstructed by the chute.
• Belt damage:-. when the bulk flow material flowing from the Hooper which comes
out in the form of lumps it damages the chute.
 BULK SOLID PROPERTIES AND CHUTE SPECIFICATIONS

 Properties of bulk solid:-

• The shape of particles: circular (assumed for DEM simulation)
• Material: iron ore
• Bulk density of particles: 2.5 t/m³
• Wall angle friction = 16.67°
• Internal angle of friction = 50°
• Specifications of chute:-
• Type of chute to be designed: Fast flow straight type chute,
• Material used : stainless steel
• Input conveyor belt : capacity (2200), rated (200)

Speed: 3m/s
Belt width: 1200 mm
• Receiver conveyor belt details: capacity (2745), rated (2700) TPH
Speed: 2.87 m/s
Belt width: 1200 mm
DESIGN PRINCIPLE – AIM TO PREVENT PLUGGING AT IMPACT POINTS IN CHUTE

• Plugging: Here some of the particles flowing in

the chute get stuck near the impact points when
the tan of angle of impact is equal to the tan of
wall angle of friction.
• Plugging occurs when V2 = 0 (when tanθ = tanφ)
• V2/V1 = cos φ – (sin φ * tan θ)
• Here:
V1 is velocity before impact
V2 is velocity after impact
θ is wall angle of friction
φ is an impact angle or the angle with which the
bulk solid is striking the chute.
PROCEDURE FOR CHUTE DESIGN
STEP 2: ESTIMATING THE INCLINATION ANGLES FOR CHUTE BODY AND CHUTE EXIT

• Here we are designing a fast flow straight

chute so the angle at which the chute should
be inclined must always be greater than the
internal angle of friction and wall angle of
friction. Here Internal angle of friction is 50°
and Wall angle of friction is 16.67°
• Hence, we are taking the chute angle to be
around 60.5° as per the industry guidelines,
(which is greater than the internal angle of
friction and wall angle friction).
• A distance of the hopper from the receiver belt
= 5.017 m (given data) . The drop chute’s
vertical length is assumed to be 61.032% of
this height as per the mineral industry
guidelines i.e 3.062 m
•  The angle at which the chute exits is taken as
70° as it is greater than the minimum angle of
wxit which is 50
 STEP 3: DESIGNING THE CHUTE’S HOOD
• To calculate the dimensions of the chute hood we should know the diameter of
the rolley of the input bulk material conveyor. The formula for the breadth of
chute in the front view is
Breadth of chute at top in front view = R + B + C
• R is the radius of the roller of conveyor belt,
• B is the breadth of a cross-section,
• C is clearance
• Radius of the roller of the conveyor = (630/2)
• Breadth of cross-section = 800 mm
• Clearance = 185 mm (as per industrial guidelines)
• The dimension of the chute hood at top = 1300 mm
• Dimensions of the chute near the conveyor 877 mm
• Space between the chute hood and roller is 108 mm
• The width of the chute in front view should be around 1.4 times the belt of
input conveyor ( belt of input conveyor has a width of 1200mm). Therefore the
width of chute inside view at the top is 1700 mm
THEORETICAL ANALYSIS AND
RESULTS
 2. FINDING WHETHER THE CHUTE SATISFIES THE DESIGN PRINCIPLE OF AVOIDING
PLUGGING AND FIDING THE VELOCITY AFTER IMAPCT

•Vertical component of velocity particles before point of impact= 4.251 m/s

•Horizontal component of velocity of particles before impact = 3 m/s
•Angle made by the velocity vector with chute’s flat surface before impact is tan
(horizontal velocity component/ vertical velocity component) = 35.2112°

Fig: Diagram showing the approximate point of impact on the flat surface of the
chute’s hood.
 EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

RESULT 1: THE VELOCITY OF PARTICLES JUST BEFORE THE IMPACT ON

THE CHUTE HOOD IS 5.23536 M/S, THIS VELOCITY IS INDICATED BY
RED COLOR AT TIME 2.25 SECONDS
•

•
RESULT 2: WE CAN SEE THAT THERE IS NO PLUGGING OCCURING HERE
RESULT 3. WE CAN OBSERVE THAT BEFORE IMPACT THE VELOCITY OF PARTICLES IS 5.23 m/s WHICH
HERE AT TIME 3.3 SECONDS IS INDICATED BY GREEN COLOUR AND VELOCITY AFTER IMPACT IS 3.62
m/s INDICATED BY BLUE COLOUR.
COMPARISION OF EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
WITH THE THEORETICAL RESULTS

  THEORETICAL RESULTS EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

VELOCITY OF PARTICLES BEFORE IMPACT    

   
5.202 m/s 5.2353 m/s

DOES PLUGGING OCCUR?    

NO NO

VELOCITY OF PARTICLES AFTER IMPACT    

3.3520 m/s 3.6247 m/s