ANALYTICAL DEVELOPMENTS TO ASSESS THE ACTION INDUCED BY GRAIN ON FLAT-BOTTOM SILOS DUE TO SEISMIC INPUT

This paper studies analytically the dynamic behaviour of flat-bottom silos containing granular, grain-like material. In the first part of the paper, the mutual actions exchanged between the grain and the walls of the silos under static and accelerated conditions (constant vertical acceleration and constant horizontal acceleration) are studied. In the second part, the analytical results obtained in the first part are used to formulate some synthetic suggestions, aimed at evaluating the effects of earthquake ground motion on the walls of the flat-bottom silos containing granular, grain-like material. The findings indicate that, in the case of silos characterised by specific (but usual) height/diameter slenderness ratios, the portion of grain mass that interacts with the silo walls turns out to be noticeably lower than the total mass of the grain in the silo.