Effects of vibrations on tilted silo discharge

Introducing vibrations is a common way to improve the granular flow in silos to avoid clogging. In this study, a three-dimensional silo submitted to vertical vibration was built. The effect of vibration on the discharge of tilted silo was studied. The results showed that, the discharge rate did not depend on the particle depth but decreased with the increase of the outlet tilt angle, regardless if the silo was vibrated or not. Discharge rate showed non-monotonic relationship with vibration frequency at high amplitude, while increased with increasing frequency at low amplitude. The contour plots of the influence of vibration and tilt angle on the discharge were given. Based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA), the effect of the tilt angle on the discharge was higher than the vibration amplitude and frequency.