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Introduction
Background
Silo structures are utilized extensively in different sectors for storing and conveying granular materials in multiple activities such as farming, mining, chemical, mineral processing, and energy areas [1, 2, 3, 4–5]. Several studies have extensively studied the pressures exerted on circular silos since they are the most commonly used in different applications. However, fewer investigations were performed on square or rectangular silos [4, 6].
Rectangular silos are advantageous over circular silos in terms of utilization and construction costs. However, structural analysis of rectangular silo walls is more complicated, since they are subjected to bending moments and membrane actions, in comparison with circular silo walls, which are primarily subjected to membrane forces [7, 8]. Furthermore, the structural behavior of rectangular wall silos depends primarily on the wall flexibility and the friction between the granular materials and walls [4].
The majority of classical theories for circular silos walls are based on the concept of the equilibrium of a horizontal strip of granular materials. One of the most widely used theory in design practices to predict wall pressure for circular silos is the Janssen theory [9, 10–11]. According to Jansen’s theory, the mean wall pressure is only affected by the characteristics of the granular materials and the silo dimensions. However, it is considered constant, with no variations in the horizontal plan section of the silo. The Janssen approach had been extended to include non-circular silos by defining a square silo equivalent to a circular silo with the same hydraulic radius. This approximation was employed in most existing design codes and standards [10, 11–12] to anticipate the pressure applied on rigid silo walls only. Eurocode detailed the process of calculating the equivalent hydraulic radius for the square planform using the cross-sectional area (A) and perimeter (U) of non-circular silos. This approach assumed that the silo wall is relatively stiff and that the lateral pressure ratio remains constant as silo altitude increases. Thus, there is a limitation to using the Jansen extended approach for designing semi-rigid and flexible wall silos, which can be widely applicable to steel silos. Several scholars [13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18–19] have investigated square and rectangular silos and implemented various suggestions and concepts to demonstrate the discrepancies between the wall pressure variations acting...