Development of normal pressure and frictional traction along the walls of a steep conical hopper during filling

Abstract

A novel progressive filling approach was adopted in a numerical effort to represent the pilling process of particulate solids. It was implemented in a finite element analysis to investigate the development of loads along the walls of a conical steep hopper during filling. The loads were interpreted as normal pressure and frictional traction. An analysis of the conventional so-called ‘switch on’ filling was also conducted. Results form both analyses were compared with calculation based on classical theories for the loads acting on the wall of a steep hopper. A good agreement in such comparisons indicates that the progressive filling as adopted is a feasible approach as a finite element analysis to applications where analytical solutions are limited.