Silo Design, Analysis and Optimization of its Components

Abstract

Silos and hoppers are widely used in a many different industries for storing a huge range of different solids. The value of these tanks to society exceeds by far the economic value of the tanks and their contents. This is because the failure of tanks and their accessories is not limited to the immediate danger to nearby human lives, but also to a large extent leads to serious consequences and very likely to long-term environmental damages. The sizes of these silos may vary from capacities less that 1 tonne to the largest containing as much as 100 000 tonnes. So, the Design of the silo should be done properly. This thesis contains designing of the silo as per various applicable code and standards. The silo is designed for various types of load acting on it e.g. dead load, live load, wind or seismic load, load during filling and discharging of bulk material etc. Stress calculation has been done for Silo having storage capacity of 115 m3 for storing plastic pellets. This include different kind of stresses developed in silo i.e circumferential stress as 5.10, axial stress, equivalents stresses. Finally all stresses are verified by allowable stress values of construction material according to standards such as 39.1 and then it is verified by using FEA analysis. Critical phase in silo is transition phase where cylindrical shell meets conical hopper which is vulnerable so that proper design of supporting ring girder which can prevent the failure.