Structural Engineering Commons^™

Agricultural Product Loads And Warehouse Failures, Norbert J. Delatte

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Two manufactured metal building warehouses loaded with agricultural products failed in service. Inspection revealed considerable damage to the structure and the foundation. The building owner filed suit against the building supplier, the building erector, and the soils testing laboratory whose engineer had designed the foundation. The agricultural product imposed substantial outward lateral pressures on the walls of the structures. Review of the available design documents indicated that these loads had not been accounted for in design. A structural analysis revealed that elements of the structure were underdesigned for the agricultural product loads. In addition, the foundation did not have any …