Study of Flow Behavior of Granular Material Inside Cylindrical Silo Using Ultrafast X-Ray Imaging Technique

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents an application of an ultrafast electron beam X-ray CT scanner for investigating the gravitational flow behavior of granulates through cylindrical silo model. The CT scanner allows obtaining crosssectional images of the granular material distribution with a spatial resolution of approximately 1 mm and a time resolution of 2 kHz. In order to conduct a deep analysis of the granular flow concentration changes, two image processing algorithm steps were applied. The first step deals with preprocessing and re-centering stacks of raw images. The second step divides the preprocessed image into several concentric rings and calculates the mean value to study radial concentration changes. Independent analysis of granular concentration in each ring provides useful knowledge to study the silo discharging during mass flow and funnel flow.