Determinación de los empujes y de las propiedades mecánicas de los pellets de madera almacenados en un silo de 2 m de altura y comparación con otros ensayos a escala real y de laboratorio

Abstract

Given the growing need to decarbonize the planet through more efficient, clean and inexhaustible renewable sources, there is no doubt that pellets are proposed as one of the most hopeful alternatives for the future, to face this new “green stage” in which we find ourselves. wrapped. and, that as part of society we are obliged to collaborate to minimizing climate change as much as possible. Likewise, as part of the scientific community, we must assume the commitment to contribute as much as possible to the d evelopment of science and the methods derived from it to improve the world around us. One of the renewable energy sources that has been growing the most in recent years is that based on wood pellets. Being a fuel of recent appearance, there are still many aspects that have to be studied. One of the fundamental aspects in the logistics of pe llets is their storage, requiring large containers, in most cases, silos. To calculate the silo structure, it is necessary to know the values of a series of parameters that are still very scarce in the literature (angle of internal friction, constant K, etc.). On the other hand, these values are based on laboratory tests that ma y have differences, as demonstrated in this doctoral thesis, with those observed in real size silos. In this doctoral thesis, values of some of these parameters obtained in the test silo are presented and compared with those obtained in the laboratory at t he particle level and with the bulk material. Furthermore, the thrusts of the stored material on the silo wall have been obtained both during filling, at rest and during emptying, in order to compare these thrusts with those calculated with the Eurocode us ing the different parameter values obtained, and, in order to be able to assess the degree of precision of the calculations of such standard, with respect to the real values. Likewise, the thrusts obtained in the test silo have been compared with those obtained using other materials and in other silos, in order to check their validity and know the differences that these thrusts present using thi s new material.