Design and instrumentation of a mid-size test station for measuring static and dynamic pressures in silos under different conditions – Part II: Construction and validation

Abstract

Using the design described in the first of this pair of articles, a full-size silo pressure test station was constructed. In this present article, the main characteristics of this station are described, together with the results obtained from the first validation tests. In addition, these results are compared with the European standard on silos.Very few experimental installations in the world have full-scale silos, and very few assays have been conducted on them. Consequently, many uncertainties remain which require further research in order to reliably predict the behaviour of material stored in this kind of structure.The results obtained demonstrate that the theoretical design of the test station is valid for measuring silo pressures and that the station offers multiple possibilities for future research.Although the principle aim of this article is to demonstrate that the previous theoretical design is valid, some novel conclusions can also be drawn from the tests performed. For example, observation of pressure patterns under static conditions inside the silo, and of overpressure surge patterns during silo discharge, has led us to conclude that the existence of asymmetrical pressures inside the silo is not a consequence of chaotic behaviour, but rather obeys certain physical laws which have still not been sufficiently studied.