Silos with stepped wall thickness on local supports

Abstract

Some years ago the authors presented an engineering model for the design of cylindrical shells with uniform wall thickness on local supports [4], based on a concept of effective width. In the meantime this model has been improved for the application of silo design. In this paper numerical studies are presented. The stress field is described which originates from the local support at the bottom of a silo and widens towards the top of the silo. This information helps the engineer to design silos with stepped wall thickness under local loads. Special consideration is given to the hopper junction where additional circumferential stiffness is provided which improves the spreading of the local load.