Design of hoppers using spreadsheet

Abstract

This paper presents a spreadsheet add-in for the design of mass flow conical and wedge hoppers. The Jenike's hopper design charts for mass flow were curve fitted. The relationships obtained were used together with other relevant expressions to develop an add-in tool for the determination of the pertinent hopper design parameters (exit size, mass flow rate, semi-included angle, flow factor, and critical applied stress) in the Microsoft Excel environment. The add-in was tested with experimental data, and results obtained were in agreement with those obtained in the literature.