Numerical simulation and energy consumption analysis of ventilation patterns in grain silo

Abstract

Mechanical ventilation is an effective method to ensure the security of grain storage, which directly impacts the storage duration and storage quality. In this work, considering the coupling effect of grain physical parameters and gas-solid phase interaction on ventilation, the porous media, non-thermal equilibrium and turbulence models were employed to investigate the variation of velocity field and temperature field under four ventilation patterns: vertical ventilation duct (VD), transverse ventilation duct (HD), combined roof inhalation duct (CRD), and combined bottom inhalation duct (CBD). The relative standard deviation (RSD) and unit energy consumption were used to evaluate the performance of different ventilation patterns quantitatively. The results show a relative deviation of 5.12 % between simulation and experiments. Compared with VD and HD, CRD and CBD exhibit higher velocity values and gradient in the center of grain silo. The physical parameters of grain have obvious impacts on velocity field, and paddy has the highest velocity values due to its higher porosity. CRD has a significant advantage in cooling speed and effect, with the grain surface temperature at 12 m and 25 m lower than other patterns by 1.2 °C and 1.8 °C, respectively. The large porosity of paddy can advance cooling time by up to 5–10 h, while the lower specific heat capacity and higher thermal conductivity of peanut result in cooling temperatures 1.5 °C–2.4 °C lower than other grain. The temperature RSD of VD is lower than other ventilation patterns, and the unit energy consumption of CRD and CBD is better.