DESIGN PRESSURE DISTRIBUTION ON CIRCULAR SILOS WITH CONICAL ROOFS

Wind pressure distributions have been established for typical grain storage silos, with circular cylindrical walls and conical roofs, from wind tunnel tests in an atmospheric boundary layer modeled for open country terrain. Tests for Reynolds number dependency establish that supercritical flow conditions were achieved and thus full scale conditions were simulated, with the resultant pressure being relevant to design conditions. Comparisons of model and full scale measurements are presented. Change in wind pressure distributions due to variation in roof pitch and height to diameter ratio have been investigated. One group configuration of three silos in a line has been investigated to study changes in wind pressure distribution due to structures in close proximity.