Stresses in the neighborhoods of defects in bunker walls

Abstract

During laboratory and full-scale studies of loads on the protecting surfaces of structures for storing and reworking bulk materials, the requirement to set up pressure gauges during their construction has been firmly maintained. This requirement has been demanded on the basis of numerous experimental data, which indicate that during discharge of bulk materials, the gauges, whose measuring surfaces have been submerged even to an insignificant amount in the adjusting recess, will register pressures that are substantially higher than in the cases where the surfaces of these same gauges project into the bunker or silo, or lie in the plane of their protecting surfaces [i, 2]. These facts have served as a basis for the conclusion that submerged gauges register some value which does not reflect the true picture of the stresses at the contact between the bulk material and the construction; the true stress values may only be obtained when the set-up of the measuring areas is flush with the wall (or insignificantly projecting inwards), and therefore, in all cases, the areas must be arranged in just this way. The reasons for the "irregular" readings of buried gauges still remain uncertain. Such a situation cannot be accepted because the position involved during measurements of buried areas has a purely practical aspect.