Tuesday, December 3, 2013

silo collapse

A news item appeared about a silo collapse in Washington and possibly trapping a person inside, or more than one person. Probably trapped in a building attached to the silo. None of the articles had photos so far, but there sure are a lot of photos of collapsed silos. It's a thing. Grain all over the place.

A friend of mine owns such a silo, participant in a farmer's co-op, so socialized farming, he said the farmers use the silo as a bank. He told me all about silos and how they come into being on the landscape.

This collapse makes me think maybe a better shape for grain silos is a a cone, like the pyramids constructed in the shape of a collapsed edifice, a mountain, so when it collapses it is already in that shape, and there you go. 

You cant have that collapse in Washington so have this one instead. This one is  planned, prepared, photographed from two angles. Not an accident, but weird.


Take care when you fall.

4 comments:

Calypso Facto said...

That's a pretty bizarre collapse. I bet they didn't predict that before they took it down. Maybe it was a rare Tennessee Walking Silo?!?

Most silos that are knocked down just tip over on their sides. And most that collapse unexpectedly, blow out when loaded.

In my experience, commodity silo storage problems come primarily where the commodity is in contact with the floor (condensation and rot from changing ground temperatures) and anaerobic heating at the center of a large pile. So ideal storage shape for the commodity would perhaps be an INVERTED pyramid (with air gaps), Chip. The cylindrical silo is a cost-effective compromise between structural strength and storage conditions.

Chip Ahoy said...

I didn't think of all that. There is a lot to silage that is not intuitive, like particles and fires.

rhhardin said...

Bob Evans stores biscuits in them.

Methadras said...

That is a stair step collapse. Kinda like what's happening to the ACA.