Axial Buckling of Spiral Steel Folded Silo

Pourzeynali, Parham; Mehretehran, Alireza Moazezi

doi:10.22065/jsce.2025.502652.3643

Axial Buckling of Spiral Steel Folded Silo

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Parham Pourzeynali ¹

Alireza Moazezi Mehretehran ²

¹ Master student , Earthquake Engineering, Division, Civil Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor, Structural Engineering Division, Civil Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

10.22065/jsce.2025.502652.3643

Abstract

Cylindrical steel silos are widely used for storing granular materials in industry. Due to their thin wall thickness, these structures are highly susceptible to buckling under applied loads. Steel silos are constructed in various forms, such as flat sheet, corrugated sheet, and spiral silos. Despite the widespread use of spiral silos, most previous studies have focused on the behavior of flat sheet and corrugated silos. Accordingly, this study is the first research to investigate the buckling behavior of spiral silos. Silos, depending on their use, must first be designed to withstand gravity loads caused by granular materials during the loading and unloading process. Therefore, current design codes, such as the Eurocode, provide equations for buckling loads under axial compression. Hence, the buckling behavior of these silos subjected to axial compression is assessed in this research by considering the relevant Eurocode provisions. Spiral silos offer advantages such as, semi-automated construction and mechanical connections, which leading to faster construction. Due to the construction method, spiral rings are formed around the entire height of the silo which improving the buckling behavior. Hence, the specific shape of the silo, the angle of the circumferential rings, and the sensitivity to geometric imperfections are studied in detail through finite element analysis using Abaqus software. Furthermore, to investigate the effects of the specific shape of spiral silos on buckling strenght, a comparison is made between this type and equivalent flat sheet silos.

Keywords

Spiral Steel Folded Silo

Axial Buckling

Circumferential stiffener

Imperfection sensitivity

Finite Element Analysis

Subjects

Thin-Walled Structures

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