Preventing Buckling in Grain Storage Silos

Grain storage silos are essentially pressure vessels, but unlike liquid or gas storage vessels, grain in silos is not always distributed axisymmetrically. Remnant grain obtained from discharging underneath along a diametrical line forms grain ungulas. This produces uneven pressures around the circumference of the silo. The resulting forces have led to buckling in some steel storage silos. This article demonstrates how to approximately calculate these forces in the silo and shows why they can cause buckling of an improperly designed tank. Sufficient base anchorage is suggested as the most effective means for elimination of this buckling problem.