STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF COLUMN-SUPPORTED STEEL SILOS WITH ENGAGED COLUMNS

Supporting silo walls directly on engaged columns provides a simple and cost-effective support arrangement for light steel silos.Numerical analyses including linear stress analyses,linear eigenvalue buckling analyses and geometrically nonlinear analyses are carried out to investigate the structural behavior(mainly stability behavior)of these column-supported steel silos with engaged columns.The effects of geometric parameters,including the radius-to-thickness ratio,the height of the engaged column and the width of the column,on the structural behavior are analyzed.It is found that the buckling strength of column-supported silos is mainly dependent on the height of the engaged column,which also affects the buckling deformation mode.In order to improve the load-carrying capacity of column-supported silos,the engaged columns should extend to the top of the silo wall.Such support arrangement that columns extend to the eave ring may be used in medium/heavy silos.