Silo with a Corrugated Sheet Wall

Silos and tanks are currently being used to create reserves of stored materials. Their importance is based on balancing the production and consumption of bulk materials to establish an adequate reserve throughout the year. The case study introduced within the framework of this paper focuses on thin-walled silos made of corrugated sheets and on an approach for designing these types of structures. The storage of bulk materials causes compression or tensile stresses in the walls of a silo structure. The effect of a frictional force in the silo walls creates an additional bending moment in a wave, which ultimately affects the resulting bending moments. Several mathematical and physical models were used in order to examine various types of loading and their effects on a structure. Subsequently, the accuracy of the computational models was verified by experimental measurements on a grain silo in Bojničky, Slovakia. A comparison of the experimental and mathematical models shows a reasonable match and confirms the load specifications, while indicating that the mathematical model was correct.