×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Force to push plate through bulk material

Force to push plate through bulk material

Force to push plate through bulk material

(OP)
I'm looking for a way to calculate the force required to move a vertical plate having width .75" through a pile of material with a known density, cross section, and particle top size.

The closest I've been able to come is calculating the force necessary to displace the required volume of material for the plate to slide through.  This doesn't take into account the force necessary to move the larger particles (wider than the plate width) out of the way.  

Any ideas?  Thanks!

RE: Force to push plate through bulk material

In my opinion, you are on the right track. Keep thinking. Some factors worth noting may be:
- what direction is the plat being moved (ie. being pushed horizontally or vertically into the material)
- at what depth is the plate at (if being pushed horizontally)
- would the shear stress on the surface of the plate have a significant affect or not? (possibly depending on the material)

Your mention of particle sizes being larger then the thickness of the plate makes me think that an analytical method probably does not exist. You can try to approximate a force with basic static and dynamical laws. But, I would try to perform a simple experiment to verify. Would be interesting to correlate the 2.

peace


 

Fe

RE: Force to push plate through bulk material

I know you want to calculate it, but from my materials handling experience I'd set up a test and measure it.  Science and bulk materials still have a way to go.

RE: Force to push plate through bulk material

Hi Evilspeeder,

I'd like to help with this problem, but I need some more information.  What are the boundary conditions for this problem (i.e. Where can the larger particals flow to that are wider than your plate)?  Can you send me a diagram of what you're trying to accomplish?  Also, maybe we can simplify it in a manner that yields a conservative answer for the force being calculated.  What device is delivering the force to the system?  Hope to help!

Regards,

David Haag, M.E.

Haag Enterprises
david.haag@haagenterprises.com

RE: Force to push plate through bulk material

The frictional characteristics of the bulk material will have a huge impact on your calcs.  Imagine gravel vs polyethylene pellets.  Applying vibration to the plate will aid in the material flowing to allow discplacement.

RE: Force to push plate through bulk material

Another consideration may be to have a chamfer or leading edge on the vertical plate.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources