Asphalt, Road Materials & Paving Products worked example

Hot Mix Silo Storage Time with hot mix held in silo of 800 tons: a worked example

Push hot mix held in silo up to 800 tons and the picture changes. This example computes every intermediate figure at that operating point. a plant dispatcher needs to know how long silo inventory can feed trucks or a paving crew before more mix must be produced

The inputs for this scenario

  • Hot mix held in silo: 800 tons (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 320)
  • Expected silo drawdown rate: 85 tons / hr (unchanged)
  • Storage safety factor: 1.2 x (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Unprotected silo hours = hot mix in silo รท expected drawdown rate) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 9.52 hr protected storage for adjusted run time, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 9.41 hr protected storage for base run time.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 1.2 % for allowance applied.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 85 pieces / min for process rate.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where hot mix held in silo sits at 320 tons and the headline result is 3.81 hr protected storage, this scenario comes in 150% above the baseline at 9.52 hr protected storage.
  • It computes the protected hours of usable silo storage by dividing stored tons by drawdown rate and trimming with a safety factor. The value of this scenario is the size of the gap it exposes: that gap, priced out over a year, is the budget you can justify spending to close it.

Results at a glance

  • Adjusted run time: 9.52 hr protected storage (headline result)
  • Base run time: 9.41 hr protected storage
  • Allowance applied: 1.2 %
  • Process rate: 85 pieces / min

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Hot Mix Silo Storage Time calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.