On the use of plate-type normal pressure cells in silos: Part 2: Validation for pressure measurements

This paper deals with a specific plate-type normal pressure cell to be used in the study of loads in silos.An evaluation of the pressure cells and their installation in a silo wall revealed the need for a validation of their performance when measuring pressures in silos. The pressure cells were mounted along a vertical line of the wall of the silo with a concentric hopper in order to be able to measure pressure distributions, which may be considered well-known, especially during the filling processes. Tests were carried out with two commonly stored agricultural granular materials: wheat and maize. Analyses based on a Discrete Element Model were performed to contribute to the validation.The result of the validation was that measuring errors should be expected and that the measuring errors changed with the stiffness of the stored material and therefore with the flow conditions. This knowledge is essential for a later proper interpretation of pressure measurements in test silos.