SILOS for Cement and Other Industries: Design and Construction

This Book explains principles of designing of Silos and their construction techniques.

This Book is basically limited to Concrete and steel Silos, though the approach and principles in general are applicable for other Silos also.

Very few books were available on Silos. Books by Manning, Ketchum and, Faber and Mead were useful for their pressures calculations and structural design. International Codes of Practice on silo Design, like DIN (1964) and ACI (1977) were introduced subsequently. But they were satisfactory when silo sizes were small; about 12m dia. maximum. These were based on semi-empirical approaches for pressures calculation. Due to this limitation, structural and functional failures of Silos happened sporadically.

During 1985, Safarian and Haris published their excellent voluminous treatise on Silos design and construction. Their book includes provisions of International codes of Practice at that time from Germany, USA, France, Soviet Union and suggestions from many international practicing Design Engineers.

Subsequently, some of the International codes were revised based on the latest findings of research and practical observation results. With the introduction of the Euro Code on Silos, other Codes were revised. This book gives recommendations of these codes; viz. DIN, Euro and others codes & highlights the limitations of these codes.

The main uncertain issue had been the computation of material pressures on silo walls and their bottom structures. Starting with historical developments of Silos since 1770s, this Book covers up to their causes of failures and the remedial measures. Silo strengthening measures are also mentioned.

Worked out examples of material pressures computations as per the current Codes of practice are included to help proper understanding of the principles of calculation of pressures and structural design.

It is expected that this Book would be very useful as a guide to young Engineers interested in the design of Silos structures and will serve as a reference to Practicing Engineers. Many practical suggestions are included on both design and construction aspects of the Silos.

This would also be of immense help as course material for 'Special Structures' being conducted in educational institutes.

B. G. K. Murthy received B.E (Hons.) degree in Civil Engineering from Andhra University, Waltair, in 1961 and M.Tech. (SM & FE) from IIT Kharagpur in 1962. He was first class first and Gold Medalist (University topper) from Andhra University and won several academic prizes. He had worked for many reputed consulting and design organizations like HEC Designs, International Equipment corporation (Arcon), Holtec Engineers, Stup Consultants, Ercom / Excelon FLSmidth across a career spanning almost six decades. Since 1965, he had been designing cement plant structures for nearly five and half decades, including material storage Silos. Starting as an engineer at the public sector enterprise Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC - FFP), Ranchi to retiring as a Technical Advisor at FLSmidth, a Danish multinational company - Mr Murthy has gained a lot of experience in designing Silo Structures and other cement Plant structures in the varied foundation and atmospheric conditions. He has designed tall and large-diameter Silos, including the largest in India; large span roofs, large cement plants, Power plants, Bridges, Airport Terminals, Embassies, Hotels, auditoriums, and temples. He has worked towards the widespread use of EuroCodes, especially on Silos' codes across quite a few countries. He has served on the Civil engineering curriculum development committee at IIT Delhi.