Design of Reinforced Concrete Silo Groups

This book offers a new calculation procedure of the structural behavior of grouped layout of silos, easy to use and with satisfactory responses. Groups of reinforced concrete silos are structures commonly used in the food industry, where it is usually necessary to separate the storage of different types and sources of grain. The grouped layout of silos has numerous benefits when compared with single-cell silos in which the emphasis is on creating further space for silage, normally referred to as interstice – a space formed between the edges of the group’s cells. This economic benefit, on the other hand, raises a structural problem for the designer of this type of building, which is to assess the magnitude of bending moments and hoop forces due to the structural continuity of the walls in the interstice region of the cells. Bending moments assume extreme values exactly when the interstice is loaded and the other cells in the group are empty. To develop the formulation of the proposed analysis models, a parametric study was carried out that allowed the adequate consideration of the variables involved. The idea is to help professionals, engineers, industrials and academics involved in this advanced interdisciplinary field as a comprehensive guide for courses offered at different levels of learning (undergraduate and postgraduate).