Abstract

An obstruction attached to the wall of a bin produced by cohesive, moldy grain has been reported as a source of failure in steel bins. A study was conducted to estimate the effect of two-dimensional (plane) and three-dimensional (block) obstructions attached to the corrugated wall in a flat-floor model bin where the lateral wall pressure and vertical wall loads were measured. The model bin was 1.83 m in diameter, 5.75 m high, and filled with soft red winter wheat to a depth of 5.0 m (height-to-diameter ratio h/d of 2.75). The plane obstruction had the form of an annulus segment spanning 60° of the bin wall and a width of 0.154 m (surface area of 7.2% of the bin floor area). A three-dimensional obstruction was shaped as a block with two bases identical to the plane obstruction and a height of 0.5 m. The plane obstruction and the upper base of the block obstruction were attached to the wall at h/d ratios of 1.26, 0.81, and 0.38. Even in conditions of near symmetry during centric loading, wall overturning moments of approximately 1 kNm were observed. The highest wall moment measured was 2.7 kNm at the end of filling with the block attached at h/d of 0.38; the moment with a plane obstruction in the same position was 2.1 kNm. Without an obstruction attached to the wall, the maximum lateral pressure increased 2.5 times relative to the static pressuer compared to an increase of 4 times with an obstruction. The data collected indicated that there are considerable additional loads imposed on a bin due to obstructions that may form during storage that are not considered in the design codes and could approach levels observed during eccentric discharge.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2009

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Transactions of the ASABE, v. 52, issue 1, p. 225-233.

© 2009 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers

The copyright holder has granted the permission for posting the article here.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13031/2013.25942

Funding Information

The authors wish to express their appreciation to the College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky, for sponsoring Dr. Molenda's visit to the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, which made the research reported in this article possible.

Related Content

This article is published with the approval of the Director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station and designated Paper No. 05‐05‐069.

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