Full-scale experiments on wheat flow in steel silo composed of corrugated walls and columns

•Experiments on wheat flow in a medium-size steel cylindrical silo were performed.•Novel cell loads were used to measure wall pressures.•Effect of the flow pattern on wall pressures was studied.•Experimental results were compared with Eurocode 1

The paper describes experimental investigation results on wheat flow in a medium-size steel cylindrical flat bottom silo with horizontally corrugated walls and columns composed of open-sectional thin-walled profiles. Several experiments on silo filling and emptying with wheat were performed by inducing a different flow pattern. The following quantities were measured in the silo: horizontal wall pressures, wall frictional tractions and vertical reaction forces under columns. Horizontal wall pressures and wall frictional tractions were registered along the silo height and silo circumference in the lower silo region during three different flow patterns: mass flow, mixed mass-funnel flow and eccentric flow. Experimental results were compared with Eurocode 1. Some discrepancies between experiments and code formulae were observed.

Graphical abstractExperimental set-up: storage silo '1' and measuring silo '2'Download high-res image (140KB)Download full-size image