Dear jinson,

Your subject title is the minimum opening for a cement silo.

From the text in your thread, it seems that you want to use the flow function for determining the (outlet) opening.

The flow function is important for the silo (cone) flow and not so much for the flow rate through the outlet opening.

Designing a cement silo with a cone hopper should result in mass flow (no arching) and a required outflow rate.

However, cement is fluidisable.

This means that in the unfluidised condition, cement will not flow at all

Therefore cement silos are equipped with some form of aeration, whereby the air pressure between the cement particles reduces the internal friction and the aeration pressure in combination with the outlet opening determines the outflow rate.

See: https://www.ibauhamburg.com/en/compo...-control-gate/

Asking for the flow function graph of cement, without mentioning the conditions (from fully fluidized, aerated to packed or consolidated) is not useful.

Have you already contacted a cement producer or cement silo manufacturer?

Have a nice day ■

Cement silo is a large equipment generally used for concrete production and storing operation. Mainly Silo allows the final product to be stored in bulk, keeping costs to a minimum. Ashoka Group Design and manufacture standard and customized Silo based the evaluation & custom requirements to ensure that the cement silo best suited for plant need. Variables for silo selection includes material handling equipment loading site design, height restrictions, available power source, and the need to move the silo to an alternate location.

Silo are often sized by the term “barrel”. This designation refers to the amount of volume material that the silo can hold when full. It is defined as 4 cubic feet of a given material. To convert this value to WEIGHT or MASS of material that can be held, the weight (mass) per cubic foot must be known. Since cement is usually loaded pneumatically, the amount of air that is integrated in the cement must be accounted for to avoid overfilling of the silo.

The following data can be used to determine the silo capacity needed.

1 Barrel of Cement = 300 lbs of blown in, or “fluffed” cement.

200 Barrel Silo – Loaded Capacity of 60,000 lbs / 30 tons

300 Barrel Silo – Loaded Capacity of 90,000 lbs / 45 tons ■