Recent research on the behaviour and design of steel silo hoppers and transition junctions

This paper presents a summary of recent research on the behaviour and design of conical steel hoppers and transition junctions in both uniformly supported and column-supported circular steel silos. The hopper in a steel silo supports the majority of the weight of the stored bulk solid and can fail in several different modes including membrane yielding and meridional rupture. The junction between the hopper, the cylinder and the skirt is termed the transition junction. It is subject to a large circumferential compression which arises from the meridional tension in the hopper and is therefore often strengthened by a ring. The transition junction can fail by elastic or plastic buckling of the ring or by plastic collapse of the hopper/cylinder/skirt/ring junction. A comprehensive picture of the behaviour and design of hoppers and transition junctions in a uniformly supported silo is presented, and several important design aspects of hoppers and transition junctions in column-supported silos are discussed.