COMPARISON OF LOAD DISTRIBUTION IN 2 SIMILAR GRAIN BINS

Wall and bottom loads and the resultant moment of force have been comp ared for two similar model bins. Corrugated wall bins of 0.6 and 1.2 m in diameter with height-to-diameter ratios of 4 were used in the expe riments. The wall and flat bottom of the bins were each supported inde pendently on three load cells to isolate wall and bottom loads. Center and off-center discharge of the bins was tested. The vertical wall lo ad to total grain load and the dimensionless moment found during eccen tric discharge were strongly influenced by the difference in the wall friction coefficient resulting from different size corrugations and di fferent kinds of grain. The maximum moment was found for an orifice ec centricity ratio of 0.67 for both bins.