Behaviour of Cylindrical Silos: The Structural Effects of Non-uniform Wall Pressures

This paper examines the structural effect of non-uniform loads of cylindrical shells. The global structure (considering the non-symmetrical loads) is modeled by finite element method using Abaqus software with shell element S8R5, The distributions of lateral wall pressures used in the analysis were scaled from those measured in full-scale silos (Analysis 1) and those calculated according to standard codes (Analysis 2). The obtained results show an important difference of wall stress of bending and membrane between the two types of analysis. Circumferential and meridional bending stresses reached their maximum in a zone at 2/3 of the silo height above the floor. Consequently, taking the bending stresses in account will allow a further optimized design of the silos under eccentric discharge.