Influence of Particle Elongation and Aspect Ratio on the Discharge Behavior of a Flat-Bottom Silo

Silos are widely used structures designed with hoppers or as flat bottoms to store different types of particulate materials (pellets, grains, powders, etc.). Although they have been used in industry for a long-time, further research is needed. This article provides design recommendations that prevent structural failures and ensure efficient discharge. The discrete element method (DEM) has been commonly used in recent decades in silo/bin research to simulate the behavior of stored materials. In this study, DEM was used to investigate the relationship between the slot width and particle size on the discharge behavior in a flat-bottom silo using particle shape configurations with different elongations and aspect ratios. Sixteen DEM models were developed using the multi-sphere approach to obtain the particle configurations, ranging from single spheres to 4×4×4 clusters of spheres arranged along orthogonal axes (x, y, and z). The simulations involved between 459 and 29,383 particles with a total mass of 40 kg in each model. The established comparisons include information on the bulk density, velocity profiles, residual masses, and discharge rates.