Flow and Arching of Biomass Particles in Wedge-Shaped Hoppers

Poor understanding of the flow behavior granular biomass material poses great challenges for bioenergy industry, as equipment functioning time is significantly reduced by handling issues like screw feeder clogging and hopper arching. In this work, loblolly pine chips, including mass rate critical outlet width, in a wedge-shaped investigated combining physical experiments numerical simulations. Comprehensive characterization response affected two attributes (initial packing, particle density) three operational parameters (hopper inclination, surcharge) conducted. The results show that width linearly controls rate, while inclination angle size. packing determines whether smooth or surging, surcharge-induced compaction creates impedance. magnitude these influences varies from slender with low to flat-bottom silo. These findings provide guidance operation industry shed light on construction novel design method biorefineries.