On the steel cost of circular flat-bottomed silos designed using the Eurocodes

Nowadays, Eurocodes have become the reference standards for silo design within the European Union. They include new procedures for load assessment and structural verifications aiming to design safer silos. However, many silo manufacturers are still reluctant to use them (or at least all their prescriptions) because of the loss of competitiveness they are experiencing in comparison with former standards. This paper shows how steel cost of flat-bottomed circular silos varies when different silo geometries and stored materials are considered. The influence of critical structural verifications on steel costs, such as buckling of the silo wall, were also analyzed and some conclusions and practical recommendations for silo designers were proposed.