Eulerian simulation of 3D freely-falling granular jet

The purpose of the paper is the numerical simulation of a silo discharge by using an Euler-Euler approach. 3D unsteady numerical simulations of an experiment have been performed. The geometry is composed of a silo and of a free-fall chamber. Then the particulate flow includes several regimes from the quasi-static regime (in the silo) to moderate (at the nozzle) and finally a dilute regime in the expansion chamber. The results show that the granular flow is found spreaded only if the silo is taken into account meaning that a strong coupling between the silo and the granular flow in the chamber exists.