My dad asked the question why are grain storage silos the shape that they are tall and round. Plz help me so I can impress him with some educated answer. thanks
It's the most economical use of the materials need to construct the silo. They could be built using any shape, it's when you figure in the cost of the materials to construct the container that the cylinder becomes the most cost effective, ie. the tin can.
Curved un-stiffened structures can take higher pressure than ones made out of flat plates, hence the needed thickness of plating would be thinner. Thus silos are made round. Grains have very high angle of repose which means that the inverted cone at the bottom of the silo should be steep in order that the grain would drain properly. A wide silo would therefore require a deeper cone and thicker materials to make it. So instead of building silos wider and bigger in diameter they are just built taller and more slender to reduce the construction cost. Also taller silos would occupy less ground area than fatter and shorter ones of the same volume.
