SHALLOW FLEXIBLE CYLINDRICAL GRAIN BINS.

The most common on-the-farm grain storage bins are built of shallow cylindrical shells made of cold-formed sheet steel. They constitute a major section of the farm building industry. However, little reliable data is available regarding the resultant loads applied to the walls by the material stored. The present study is directed to develop additional information regarding the pressures and the pressure-inducing characteristics of the grain stored taking into consideration the interaction between the grain pressure and the deformation of the wall of the bin. The finite element method is applied considering a composite slice of the grain and the surrounding wall of the bin. It accounts for the flexibility of the wall, the non-linearity of the grain material, and for the variation of grain properties due to the confining pressure and strain level. A test was conducted on a model of a cylindrical bin filled with sand. The properties of the sand are obtained from a triaxial test. The experimentally measured pressures of the sand are found to be in close agreement with those obtained analytically. The understanding of interaction between the grain pressures and wall deformations lead to suggesting a new shape for the bin walls. Herein, the wall is curved in the vertical direction towards the grain in order to increase the strength of the wall through its interaction with the grain pressure.Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1980 .M355. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: B, page: 1047. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1980