Full-scale external fire test of free-standing steel silo

Full-scale external fire test of a 92 m(3) steel silo carried out in 2018 was the first such attempt to determine the effect of the fire on a free-standing silo. So far, the research conducted in this area focused mainly on the risk of explosion and internal fire. During the test, the following measurements were undertaken: temperature of silo coat and its internal load, deformation, wind speed and coat strain under load in normal conditions. The silo was loaded with a substance (gravel) exerting significant stress on its structure. Appropriate pre-test of the thermal interaction of the steel coat and silo contents was conducted. Despite the temperature of the steel coat, the silo did not collapse only deformations of the coat were observed. The next planned step in this ongoing investigation is numerical modelling of the external fire event in silos. The data gathered in this study will be used to validate a model of the failure mode.