Effectiveness Evaluation of Steel Strength Improvement for Pyramidal-Prismatic Bunkers

Abstract

EN: In accordance with the recommendations of specialized professional literature, steel pyramidal-prismatic bunkers are projected for a service life of 20 years. However, in practice this term is often twice, or even three times lower. This is especially true for complicated operating conditions, in particular the effect of increased loads and low temperatures. Existing design techniques for such structures, both in European practice and the design practice of Ukraine and other CIS countries do not pay attention to these aspects. Therefore, in the practice of operation, the increased accident rate of steel bunker capacities has already become virtually a common occurrence. One of the possible ways to solve this problem is presented, which consists of using instead of traditional steels of ordinary strength with high plastic properties, steels of increased or high strength with reduced plastic properties. At the same time, clear theoretical recommendations are provided for choosing the right steel depending on the operating conditions, primarily when exposed to increased loads. The recommendations are presented in a form convenient for practical engineering applications. The proposed approach allows to reduce the material consumption of structures of this type on average according to theoretical estimates by 25-30% without reducing their bearing capacity. Their durability is also further enhanced by improving performance at low temperatures. Thus, the applied aspect of such a solution to this above problem is the possibility of increasing the overall reliability of steel bunker capacities, as well as reducing the cost of their periodic maintenance and repair work. A practical illustration of the presented approach is also given on the example of the design of bunkers of a bypass track for supplying charge materials for blast furnaces of one of the metallurgical plants of the northern location. As a result, this created the preconditions for monetary savings of about 0.5 million UAH in prices 2019 (about 20,000 USD)