Silage Bunker Walls

[stickmotion]

I have been asked to design free standing silage bunker walls. I was just wondering what pressure I should design the walls for when the bunker is full as well as the surcharge applied to the wall by a tractor packing the pile of removing silage from the pile.

There is a covered portion of the bunker which has 12ft tall concrete walls and is covered by a pre engineered metal building. The open portion has 16ft walls.

Is there a good refernce for loading of agricultural structures like this?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[ishvaaag]

For silo behaviour, look for

Powders and Bulk Solids
Dietmar Schulze
Springer 2008

The building attachment (conjointly with the silo) should be analyzed as pertains for a builidng of the proper use.

Of course if it is expected significant seismic action, everything, inner silo pressures included, need be atuned to such possibility.

 

[hokie66]

I don't think this is a silo, ishvaaag. The walls are bunker walls used for storage of bulk silage. I would approach it like an earth pressure problem. Don't know what the density of silage is, and you would have to assume it is wet. Assuming a repose angle, say 30 degrees, would allow use of the Rankine method. I might double it to allow for the loader. If there is a possibility the bins could be used for storage of something heavier than silage, say sand, you would need to design them for that.

That is just my idea of how to approach it, as I don't know of an appropriate reference.

 

[BAretired]

Check out these links:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=&q=s...lient-ff&rlz=1B3GGLL_en-GBCA404CA404&ie=UTF-8

BA

 

[Splitrings]

We use ASABE EP538, "Design Loads for Bunker Silos". It can be downloaded on the ASABE wedsite.

 

[Brad805]

We have a farm code in Canada that defines farm loading applications. Do you have that in your state?

Brad

 

[msquared48]

We have a lot of them in the valley below our house and they are all of a three-sided counterfort concrete wall design, open to the weather, completely tarped and weighted down with old vehicle tires.

Oh, and the cows are all easy to tip after they have eaten...

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask