Investigations of powder flow patterns in hopper model through discrete element method

Abstract

In this paper, a comparative study was conducted to observe the flow patterns of bulk powder materials through a conical shaped hopper. Hoppers were designed based on Jenike charts and further analyzed using discrete element method. The paper focuses on the flow of micro-sized powder materials and how their area flow pattern changes along with velocity distribution variation with a change in hopper angle. Discrete element method was used to predict the flow patterns for different hopper angles and to study the transition of flow from funnel flow to mass flow. A comparison was made among these hoppers based on their average velocity and average mass flow rate to have an optimum design for mass flow. It was observed that a decrease in hopper angle resulted in an increase in both the mass flow rate and average velocity.