A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering of the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand.

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1973

The main purpose of this study is to analyze and design a ferro cement rice bin which consists of two conical shells joined at their outer edges by an ordinary reinforced concrete ring girder. The bottom cone is complete, while the top cone is a conical frustum. The inner edge of the top cone is stiffened by an ordinary reinforced concrete ring girder which is in turn supporting a circular ferro-cement lid. The ferro-cement is selected for the construction due to its superior crackproof properties and the fact that the materials are available locally. The bin is subjected to three conditions of loading namely dead load, vertical ring load on the top edge, and water load. Initially, the shell will be treated, under the applied loading, as a membrane. Under such conditions, the statically determinate stress resultants in each cone can be obtained without dependence on their geometric continuities. A consideration is then given to the effects of the statically indeterminate forces and couples which must exist at the edges of each cone to preserve the continuity. This can be done by applying the corrective shearing forces and couples in the bending analysis. Finally, by combining both parts of solution, the total solution of the bin are obtained. A design example of a bin of a 3.5-ton capacity is presented. It is found that the stress resultants as a result of the water loading are critical, and they are most severe in the neighborhood of the cone union.