Assignment No.

03

Name: Khalil Ullah

Registration No. 16PWAGR0765
Semester : 8th
Department: Agricultural Engineering

Question No.01:
How grain storage structures are designed? Explain with the help of neat and clean
diagrams showing different dimensions. What type of design will be more effective from
an increased storage life viewpoint?

Answer :-

Now we discuss the general grain storage design system.

Grain Storage Systems Design:

As agriculture developed in the Middle East and other places, farmers learned to produce crops
in quantities larger than the amounts needed for their immediate use and the need for storage
and handling methods arose. Grains and oil seeds provide large quantities of carbohydrates
and significant amounts of oils for human consumption and use. Some grains can be consumed
shortly after harvest and require little processing beyond separation of the grain from other plant
material.However, as agriculture grew in scale, the need for methods to store and transport
large quantities of grain developed. Today, the grain consumed in industrialized countries is
produced by only a small fraction of the overall population by highly mechanized farming
operations.Agricultural grains including the cereal grains such as wheat, corn, and rice, and oil
seeds such as soybeans and canola are alive and interact with their immediate environment.
They must be stored, transported, and conveyed using methods that preserve their quality as
seeds, food stuffs, or raw materials. Storage can be for varying lengths of time ranging from
short-term storage on farm for drying, to waiting some period after drying for advantageous
market conditions, to long-term storage for strategic reserves. Storage can occur on farm or at
large commercial facilities.On-farm storage is usually on a smaller scale than at commercial
facilities. Grain on farm is typically stored in cylindrical metal bins. Most of these bins are
fabricated from curved corrugated sheets that are bolted together. The size of on-farm bins
grew over the last part of the twentieth century, and today some on-farm bins are over 100 ft in
diameter and some also exceed 100 ft in height,overlapping with the sizes of bins seen on
commercial operations. Flat storage of grain in warehouses is also often seen on farms for
temporary storage.Commercial bins are typically much larger than bins used on farms. They are
used at central drying facilities located in grain producing areas, at mills and other processing
facilities, and at grain handling terminals located at railroad centers and ports.The larger bins
used commercially are usually reinforced concrete cylinders. Some use of flat storage is also
seen, particularly at ports for short-term storage.

Designing frame for grain storage building:

Roof type. The type of roof one selects for a grain storage building should be governed by two
principal conditions. They are (1) the type of roof used mostly in the construction of surrounding
farm buildings and (2) the amount of storage space required for given floor area.The gable type
of roof has been the more popular in the construction of farm buildings. This can be attributed to
its simple design and the ease with which it may be erected. In spite of its simplicity and its well
known construction details it has some more or less undesirable features which the gambrel
and gothic do not have. The storage space of the gable per linear foot is somewhat less than
the gothic. The most outstanding difficulty is the required purlin supports. In the case of grain
storage building this may not be particularly important.
The gable roof lends itself well to the standard size and length material with the exception that
the rafters are in most coBEnon cases longer than standard length material. This increases the
initial cost.The gambrel type roof stands second to the gable in popularity, and, furthermore, it
offers many desirable characteristics. It has no required internal supports and has
approximately the same storage space per linear foot as the gable.For grain storage buildings
the gambrel permits the use of more standard length materials for rafters and outside wall studs.
The gambrel type roof offers considerable resistance to wind,and dead and live loads, and when
properly constructed has no tendency to sag.The gothic type roof has become increasingly
popular in the past few years. It presents a pleasing unit construction and
combines strength and rigidity to resist all external loads.With the gothic roof used in the
construction of grain storage buildings the outside walls are reduced to a minimum height.With
low outside walls the lateral pressures exerted by grain becomes a minimum, therefore the
amount of material necessary to support the load is reduced. This curved roof closely
approaches the angle of repose for ear com. Therefore, the lateral pressure exerted by ear corn
on the roof section is a minimum.The gothic roof type lends itself very desirably to the useof
standard length and size material* The bent glued laiaiiiatedrafters may be built at the site
where they are to be used,but preferably they should be prefabricated where such facilities are
available. The construction of these rafters is not confined to the selection of extra length
material, but may be built of standard length and size material.

Design of structural members.

Before any structural member may be designed properly some of the conditions under which it
must function must be known,. Some of the essential characteristics to be knovm are the loads
to be supported by the member and the conditions it must serve in.then enough of the
requirements are known,it becomes a simple matter to design the member, but the conditions
should be suoh that it is practical to design members of standard length material. One specific
objective of any design is to arrange the plan of the structure so that the most efficient
arrangement of material may be accomplished. Any design which calls for the use of odd size
material is to be avoided.In the design of any structure consideration must be given to the
method of fabrication- In farm structures and the greater portion of wood structures nails have
been the luaiversal means of fabricating materials. Nails are common means but their shearing
value is very small when compared to the strength of wood.Bolts have become more popular as
a means for fabricating wood members and they are a decided improvement over commonnails,
but yet they fall short in the development of the full strength of wood.Bolts bend between wood
members and cause crushing of the wood fibers near the outside edges of fabricated
members.The modern timber connector has Increased the structural value of wood many times
since Its use has been established. The introduction of the modem timber connector established
a new field for wood and brought immediate improvement to the connections of wood members-
Glue has further increased the use of wood. The joint in wood connections when composed of
several members and properly glued is no longer the weakest point in the member.

Design type that is more effective from increase storage life point of view:

In general, grain in long term storage should be held cool and dry. Options include smooth wall
steel silos, corrugated steel silos bins, concrete silos and underground pits. Steel silos are the
most common method of long term storage for grain at feedlots, but underground pit storage is
an alternative for longer term storage.

1): Silos:
Silos are available in a variety of sizes, configurations and materials,including flat bottom or
cone base,gas-tight sealable or non-sealed,aerated and non-aerated.Silos can be built on site
or transported fully constructed and ready to stand.The size of fully constructed, transportable
silos is limited by road transport regulations in each State. As a general guide, fully constructed
silos can be up to 140t capacity. Most smaller (50–70t) cone-bottom silos are generally
prefabricated and transported.Cone-bottom silos are self-emptying, but are limited to capacities
of less than 300t.Feedlots may require air-tight/gas-tight storage facilities of higher capacity. But
the increased surface area of a larger silo requires more sheet metal joins, providing more
opportunity for air or gas to escape.Capacity is commonly quoted in tonnes, but may also be
quoted as cubic metres (m3). To determine tonnage capacity, multiply the cubic capacity by the
bulk density of the grain.

2): Underground storage of grain:

Some time ago several Western Australian farmers have stored grain underground with minimal
deterioration for up to 11 years.

They found it a cheap and reliable way to preserve surplus or unsaleable grain for times of feed
shortage. Similar storage might be considered by others also in times of surplus.
The department supervised three underground storage trials involving five, 50 and 120 tonnes
of grain. The largest trial at Salmon Gums Research Station was designed as a realistic farm-
scale exercise. After three and a half years storage the pit was opened with virtually all the
coarse grain in good condition.

Pit storage is cheap and simple and provides perfect insect control by excluding air. The method
could have value for long term storage in the cereals.