Experimental Study and DEM Simulation of Granular Flow through a New Sphere Discharge Valve

Experiments and DEM simulation have been conducted to investigate the granular flow through a new type of sphere discharge valve. The new sphere discharge valve was based on the principle of angle of repose. The glass sphere was used in the granular discharge experiments.Experimental results showed that the relation between the averaging sphere discharge mass flow rate and the stroke of the sphere discharge valve were consisted of three zones, i.e. the idle stroke zone, linearly zone and orifice restriction zone. The Beverloo’s law was suitable for the granular flow through multi-orifices in the orifice restriction zone. The variation of averaging sphere discharge mass flow rate with the stroke of the sphere discharge valve was described by Beverloo’s law with the modification based on the stroke of the sphere discharge valve. DEM simulation results showed that the drained angle of repose during granular flow in the sphere storage vessel remained 23 degrees with different stroke of the sphere discharge valve.