Measurements of pressure and frictional tractions along walls of a large-scale conical shallow hopper and comparison with Eurocode 1991-4:2006

Abstract A silo׳s hopper supports the majority loads induced by the stored particulate solids. Such loads vary from filling to discharging provided the hopper is steep enough to secure a mass flow; when the hopper is too shallow to promote a mass flow, funnel flow usually prevails – where how loads develop along walls of a shallow hopper remains to be addressed. In the paper, normal pressure and frictional traction were measured with pressure transducers as imposed by testing material sand along the walls of a full-scale conical shallow hopper. The transducers were carefully mounted in the designated positions of hopper walls along a generator. To make the measurement results representative…