Modelling of failures in thin-walled metal silos under eccentric discharge

Abstract

Eccentric discharge of granular solids is widely considered one of the most serious design conditions for thin-walled metal silos, and one which has been the cause of very many silo disasters in the past. Yet the reasons for these consequences have not been very well understood, given the serious difficulties inherent in measuring or modelling flow patterns of granular solids, wall pressures and the associated structural response. To this end, this thesis presents a programme of theoretical and computational analyses which investigate the effects of a very wide range of different discharge flow patterns from silos, including both concentric and eccentric flows. The critical effects of changes of flow channel geometry, silo aspect ratio, changes of plate thickness and geometric and material nonlinearity are explored in detail. The codified procedures and pressure distributions for concentric and eccentric discharge of the EN 1991-4 (2007) European Standard are analysed first on a number of example silos custom-designed according to EN 1993-1-6 (2007) and EN 1993-4-1 (2007), followed by the development and investigation of a more complete mixed flow pressure theory. The computational analyses presented in this thesis are thought to be the first of their kind.