Experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of temperature patterns on behavior of large scale silo

With the requirement of environmental protection, reinforced concrete silos with large diameter for coal storage were built. In view of less literatures on the effect of temperature patterns, this paper presents the experimental study and 3D FEM simulation of a reinforced concrete silo with 136.5 m in diameter and 19.35 m in height. The stresses of circumferential and vertical steel bars were measured by the vibrating string strain gauges installed under different circumstances of temperature patterns due to sunshine and season changing. The data were collected and transmitted with GPRS transmission system for a period of more than 1000 days. Meanwhile, finite element model was built by ABAQUS software, in which the Drucker-Prager elasto-plastic criterion and the elasto-plastic damage model were used to modify the nonlinearity of soil and reinforced concrete. The test data agree well with the numerical simulation results. The effect of temperature patterns on silo wall was scrutinized. The results of this paper provide a crucial basis for the design of large scale silos.