Silo Clearance

[fsuenginerd]

I'm working on a project that consists of (4) 75' Dia. x 110' silos for the storage of wood pellets. These will be at a marina facility, and the pellets will eventually be offloaded onto barges.

My question is, is there a code that governs the spacing between silos? I've poured over the NFPA, IFC, & IBC looking for anything that would be relevant, but came up short. The concern is that since wood pellets are a combustible material, there could be quite an impressive fire if the silos are too close together.

I appreciate any help you could give me.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[focuseng]

I don't know of anything fire rated for closeness. Grain bins and other grain facilities are downright explosive and these get packed like sardines. Don't know why a wood pellet would be any different. Now foundation wise you need to be concerned with general soil shear for closeness. There are some pretty impressive failures documented on this with bins. Check out ASBAE ( or try the Agricultural Engineering forum).

MAP

 

[msquared48]

You might ask the local Fire Marshall, Port Authority, Army Corps of Engineers, or Coast Guard what they would want to see.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

http://mmcengineering.tripod.com

 

[Lutfi]

The best textbook on the design of concrete silos is:
“Desing and Construction of Silos and Bunkers: By Sargis S. Safarian and Dr. Ernest Harris.

Unfortunately, it is out of print. Try to get your hands on one if you can.

also, see ACI 313.

Regards,
Lutfi

 

[dhengr]

Wouldn’t you want to couple the silos together if you could? So they act together, because of all the material handling equip. which is usually at the top, or various levels, and operating btwn. the silos? It’s pretty tough to put variable movement joints in most of that mech. equip. There are plenty of code requirements for dust control, fire suppression and electrical wiring and equipement.

Interconnection is particularly true of many conc. silos in groups. Although, it seems to me that the opposite is true of most steel silos or corrugated metal storage bins, they are not connected structurally. And, I suspect this is true because the light steel structures could not tolerate the concentrated loadings and stresses caused by the coupling forces.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I'd want them as far apart as reasonable - one starts to burn and engulfs the rest... Happens all the time.

As noted - check w/local fire, Coast Guard, etc, etc

Dumb question- I can see how you might "dump" pallets in there - how do you get them out??

 

[hokie66]

Mike, they aren't pallets, they are pellets.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

DUH - Back to Walgreen's for stronger glasses!!

 

[leisure17]

a lot of tank farms have tanks that are that close together that you can only just walk between them. They probabably all need retaining bunds so in that respect they might want them close together in the same bund.

 

[JStephen]

NFPA 30 and IFC specify minimum tank clearances, and would generally be followed in the US for tanks. However, they are specifically for liquids, and would not apply to flammable solids.

I do see some wording in IBC about occupancy categories for storage of flammable solids, but didn't want to spend the time to see if there was anything that actually applied to a silo, as opposed to a warehouse.