Design of poured walls

[Thoughtclaw]

I've been asked for to give a preliminary size (for bidding purposes) of 12' tall poured walls for a manufacturing company. They're going to be storing heavy materials in each area of the building, and loading and unloading them with bulldozers. The attached sketch shows the anticipated weight in each room, as well as column locations (denoted by circles). They're putting a PEMB on top of the poured walls. My question is, what assumptions would you make for the loads caused by the materials leaning against the walls, as well as the possibility of the machines hitting the walls as they're working? Would anyone happen to know of a good reference for this type of application?

 

[jayrod12]

They're essentially retaining walls. Most of them appear to be cantilevered from the base.

The difficulty, as you've noted is determining the design loads. For the bulk material, they should be able to provide you with a density of material and an angle of repose. That will allow you to design for the bulk material. As for the load imparted by the equipment, that's a bit tougher to nail down and unfortunately I don't have an answer for you there.

Those separating walls are also likely to act like shear walls and help resist the thrust from the pre-eng building provided everything is detailed appropriately. So that's a bonus in my opinion, otherwise having to resist that level of thrust on a cantilevered pilaster would be quite onerous.

 

[Thoughtclaw]

Thank you, jayrod12. That at least gives me an idea of how to get started.

 

[HTURKAK]

How heavy ? in past we have designed storage house for fertilizer . The height 12' implies the loader should be bob cat similar loader rather than conventional bulldozer.

If i were in your shoes, i will go with inverted bowl type mat with CIP walls having thk. 12-14'' depending on the friction angle and density of stored material.

The PEMB roof will be simply supported on RC partition walls etc....

 

[Thoughtclaw]

The company manufactures perlite and vermiculite. Perlite is extremely light, so I'm looking at it as if it's all vermiculite. Making some conservative assumptions, I came up with 15". Obviously it's not a final design, but I've got a pretty good handle on it now. Thanks to both of you for your input.