(54ae) Proactive Inspection, the Most Economical Way to Prevent Damage in Bulk Solids Storage Silos

Abstract

Bulk solids handling is widely practiced in most industries including the chemical industry. Silos are common pieces of equipment used to store and, in some cases, process bulk solids in industrial facilities. Since there is no specific standard or code available for maintenance and monitoring of silo structures, plant personnel only take minimum or no actions to inspect existing silos in their facilities. These critical structures are many times operated for decades with no maintenance plan until they show signs of distress or failure. In the worst of the cases, a severely damaged or collapsed silo will interrupt plant operation, sometimes even causing fatal loss. The effort and cost spent in the post-incident remedy work as well as the legal procedure (if any) are extremely high. Therefore; proactive inspections along with proper repairs, as needed, is the most effective and economical way to prevent unpredictable damage and/or failure in silo structures.

In this paper, it will be discussed why proactive inspection of silos is desired instead of the more commonly used remedy-after-incident approach. The paper will also discuss general aspects of the inspection procedure and aim to identify the different roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved at different stages of this process. The ultimate goal is to provide a better understanding of the silo inspection procedure on silo structural systems as well as emphasizing on the benefits of this approach versus the costly reactive approach.