Static Interaction Analysis of RC Silo Structure Granular Material

Abstract:

Based on the hypoplastic constitutive theory, this paper aimed to analyze the pressure of RC cylinder silo wall exerted by the granular material using the finite element method (FEM). The granular material inside the silo was modeled with the modified von Wolffersdorff’s hypoplastic constitutive model by Niemunis and Herle. In order to simulate the interaction between silo wall and granular material, the contact pair algorithm was used which could model pure master slave surfaces considering the Coulomb’s friction law. Using the ABAQUS finite element numerical model, the static interaction between RC silo wall and the granular material was analyzed，and the numerical results are compared to the codes of RC silos in China, Europe(ISO), USA, the classical theories of pressure exerted by the granular materials and the existing experimental data. Meanwhile, this paper also analyzed material parameters concluding a variety of granular materials, initial void ratio, critical friction angle, friction coefficient, granulate hardness and the granular strain. The analytical results show that the effects of initial void ratio, critical friction angle, granular strain, granulate hardness, and the variety of granular materials are more significant than any other material parameters.

Key words:RC silo; hypoplastic constitutive theory; static interaction of silo structure granular material; finite element method simulation