Finite element analysis of rectangular steel grain silos

Steel silos are much more preferred than reinforced concrete silos due to their fast production and installation. In recent years, rectangular silos have become popular due to certain advantages over cylindrical silos. The fact that the body is made of flat steel plates, there is no loss of construction area when they are built in groups as in circular silo groups, etc. factors are among the main reasons for their preference. In this study, firstly, after giving a general information about the definition and types of silo, steel silo construction principles, filling and unloading loads acting on rectangular and cylindrical silo walls and hopper are examined in detail. A rectangular steel silo with very high storage capacity, impact class 2 according to Eurocode-1991-4, is modeled. In order to better understand the rectangular silo performance, a cylindrical steel silo model with the same height and capacity was also examined. For the vertical wall of the rectangular silo model, a double-layered, intermediate box profile, steel sheet wall panel was preferred as a result of various model trials. In the cylinder silo model, a single layer flat steel sheet plate is used. For rectangular and cylindrical steel wheat silo samples, detailed load calculations including filling, unloading and additional load were made according to Eurocode-1991-4. The ABAQUS program was used for the three-dimensional finite element modelling and analysis. In addition to linear elastic analyzes of rectangular and cylindrical steel wheat silo samples, modal analyzes were also performed. Creating a double-walled rectangular steel silo model in the computer environment is a very difficult and time-consuming process compared to creating a cylinder silo model of similar capacity and height. The rectangular steel silo analysis results showed that the most suitable silo body should be cylindrical. The pressure effect caused by the material stored in rectangular steel silos and the deformation effect it creates on the silo walls tries to transform the silo cross-section from rectangular to circular. When the double-walled rectangular steel silo is compared with the cylindrical steel silo models with the same capacity, it is seen that the cylindrical steel silo is subject to much less stress and deformation, and it also requires much less construction material for its manufacture. Moreover; In cases where it is not possible to manufacture a cylindrical silo, it is expected that choosing a square cross-section instead of a rectangular silo will ensure that all silo vertical walls have similar behavior and thus will be a more economical solution.