Behaviour of empty steel grain silos under wind loading: part 1: the stiffened cylindrical shell

This paper presents results of detailed finite element analyses of three empty stiffened steel grain silos under non-uniform wind loading. Three different silo geometries are considered, representing tall, intermediate and shallow silo structures. The structural system of each silo is shown to act as a rather complicated shell-spaceframe system. The roof structural system and the roof wind loading are shown to play a very important role in the overall behaviour of the silos. This paper deals specifically with the behaviour of the tank wall and vertical and circumferential stiffeners. The behaviour of the roof system will be described in a second paper.