Modified Lateral Pressure Formula of Shallow and Circular Silo Considering the Elasticities of Silo Wall and Storage Materials

For the shallow and circular silo(SCS), when the aspect ratio is between 1.0 and 1.5, the lateral pressure especially dynamic pressure may cause destruction if the size of the silo is large. In general, the lateral pressures should be calculated simultaneously according to the shallow silo and the deep silo calculation formulas based on Rankine’s earth pressure theory and Janssen’s theory, respectively, and the larger value of them should be adopted. However, whether the two formulas are reasonable needs to be verified. This paper proposed a modified calculation method of lateral pressure on the silo wall of SCS, considering the elasticities of silo wall and storage materials. The availability of shallow silo and deep silo methods, and the modified method were compared with the experiment and simulation. The results show that the Rankine’s formula is too conservative for the static lateral pressure, and the results of the modified method and Janssen formula are close to that of the experimental and simulation. For the dynamic lateral pressure calculation, Rankine theory is unsafe for the discharging load. The relative error of the dynamic lateral pressure based on Janssen theory is between 20% and 30%, which is too large. The dynamic lateral pressure calculated by the modified method is in good agreement with that of the experimental and simulation, and the relative error is less than 10%. Therefore, the modified method of lateral pressure formula is reasonable, which can provide guidance for the safety design of silo structure.