Metal and concrete silos

Metal and concrete silos carry their loads in very different ways, so the kinds of damage that can occur in each type are very different and the critical design considerations are different. For this reason, the later part of the chapter examines these two cases in separate sections. 

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The simplest stress analysis of a cylindrical silo structure under symmetrical loads was presented above in Section 3.3.5. Unfortunately, this is often the only analysis that is applied, sometimes with unfortunate consequences for the structure. Metal and concrete silos carry their loads differently because metals are strong in tension but thin metal sections tend to buckle under compression. By contrast, concrete is very weak in tension, but can resist compression well. These aspects lead to different key design considerations. 

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