Wheat Loads and Vertical Pressure Distribution in a Full-scale Bin Part I — Filling

Flat-bottom cylindrical grain bins are subjected to unique loads and pressures during the filling process. The vertical and lateral loads imposed on a bin wall and the vertical load on a bin floor by wheat during filling were measured. The radial distribution of vertical pressure during filling was also measured. The vertical pressure was determined to be dependent on the radial location and was not uniformly distributed. The load distribution in a bin with an H/D ratio of 3 was 83% on the floor and 17% on the walls. Three widely used prediction equations of Janssen, Reimbert, and Walker were compared to the measured loads and pressures and were determined to have similar shapes but different parameters for a best fit to observed data.