Considerations in design of discharge gates of steel silos

ABSTRACT: An analytical and experimental study is performed in this study for evaluation of discharge rate of grain flow from different discharge gate of a silo reservoir. Three different apertures (circular, rectangular and square shape with the same area) have been considered in this study. Based on the experimental and theoretical results obtained in this study, it is shown that the discharge rate of the circular aperture is the maximum. In contrast, the squared aperture has a minimum discharge rate. It is also found that with increasing the grain height in the tank, the discharge rate decreases. Regarding the uniform and non-oscillating discharge from a circular aperture, it is recommended to use circular gates for discharging grain materials from a reservoir, silos and storage tanks or grain drills.