Darren Frost (FrostPro) Apps

A fast and efficient tool for calculatingthevolume and actual holding capacity of a cylindrical silo eitherofa flat bottom design or having a truncated conical dischargehopperwith circular outlet.This tool was developed by a consulting engineer and isintendedto help a wide audience including bulk materialshandlingengineers, project engineers, factory operators, studentsand ofcourse silo, tank and hopper manufacturers.* For volume calculations the app requires the silodiameter,height, outlet diameter (if flat bottomed silo) and coneangle withoutlet diameter (for conical outlet silo). Allnon-dependent fieldscan be left empty or set with 0 values.* Storage capacity capability can also be calculated by enteringthebulk handling properties of the material which will fill thesiloand used for storage calculations. The user is required toinputknown data such as bulk density and the angle of repose fortheparticular material.Bulk material properties are widely available, but forquickreference some commonly used materials are listed in thehelpsection.It should be noted that the angle of repose of a materialisbased on the material filling the silo from the top via acentralinlet, in most cases for powders this can be set at 45degrees andfor free flowing granular materials 25 degrees should besuitablein most cases. If you are not sure of the angle of reposefor thematerial then set it high, as this will make sure the siloholdswhat is required.A useful feature for project engineers and silo designers istheability to set top headspace height (empty void of cylinderabovematerial peak) so that a section of the silo can be left outof theworking capacity calculation for times when explosionprotectiondevices and sensors might need fitting in the top of thecylinder,or purely to ensure the silo will hold the desired storagecapacityeven if the bulk density of the material varies slightly.Thematerial bulk density very often varies depending on productgrade,moisture content and other environmental conditions.It should be noted that if using this tool to calculatedeadloads for civil engineering purpose then the weight of thesiloitself must be added to the storage capacity plus the bulkdensityof the material is normally increased by 25% for settledmaterialsso having a higher packed density.