Discharge characteristics of conical and hyperbolic hoppers based on discharge time distribution

An experimental method based on the discharge time distribution (DTD) and the finite element method (FEM) simulation was applied to quantitatively evaluate the flow pattern, mass flow rate (MFR), and coefficient of variation (CV) of the MFR of a granular flow during the discharge of conical and hyperbolic hoppers with different initial inclination angles. The mass flow index (MFI) and MFR of the conical and hyperbolic hoppers appear to increase with the initial inclination angle. However, the MFI of the conical hopper exceeds that of the hyperbolic hopper while the MFR of the conical hopper is lower than that of the hyperbolic hopper. The CV of the MFR decreases as initial inclination angle increases for conical hoppers, but is less affected by the initial inclination angle for hyperbolic hoppers.