Influence of the pile shape on wind erosion CFD emission simulation

When designing an open storage system for bulk material like coal or iron ore, operational and investment parameters are to be considered. Those inputs are always managed by engineers and prolific literature can be found. But entering into environmental parameters like wind erosion, few methodologies are available, US EPA being one of the most extensive. This source is focused on certain conditions of wind direction, pile shape, etc. what sometimes are not matching the most interesting way of storing the material: area restrictions, stacking means, etc. Based on state of the art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, in this case we have used ANSYS CFX 5.7., modelling system was developed and compared to EPA results for conical and oval with flattop piles. After adjusting the calculation process and selecting the most effective variables, the semicircular shape was studied finding that for the same amount of material stored, lower emissions and wind erosions are to be expected; however depending on wind direction higher values of friction per surface unit are found but due to its higher volume of storage per square metre, the balance is positive to the semicircular pile.