Earthquake resistant silo blocks in Chile

TSC was trusted with the construction of two new silo blocks for an existing pet food production facility of Carozzi S.A. in Chile. One silo block for dosing of raw materials and one for finished product – meal product. There will be little space during the build of the new silo blocks, caused by the fact that these new silo blocks will be integrated in the existing production process. That also means that the production of the plant can’t be interrupted by the construction of these silos. At the moment of publishing the silo block for raw material dosing is already finished, while the other silo is under construction.

Carozzi S.A.

Carozzi is a company founded 120 years ago in Chile. In the meantime, the company grew to a multinational under which multiple brands are distributed over the whole American continent. Carozzi produces products like pasta, sauces, sweets, chocolates and petfood.

The project location

The production facility of Carozzi S.A. is situated in Sagrada Familia , Region del Maule in Chile and lies about 200km south of the capital, Santiago. This area lies relatively close to a fault line, what makes it a very earthquake sensitive area. That the risk of earthquakes is a real one, was proven in 2010, when an earthquake with the strength of 8,8 on the Richter scale hit the area. Earthquakes with strengths like these make it a challenging, yet interesting project for the engineers of TSC, who had to calculate the structure in such a way it can handle these enormous forces.

Challenges

The risk of these very heavy earthquakes challenged the engineers of TSC to design silos who can withstand these impacts. Multiple measures had to be taken to make the silo blocks strong enough. Besides these measures, the local requirements of Chile also apply. These requirements where tightened up after the heavy earthquakes of 2010.

The taken measures have been thought out and calculated within TSC. The solutions they came up with made the steel structures of the silo blocks look very impressive.

The total capacity of the two silo blocks will be 1.100m³ when finished. The dosing silos will take 900m³ on their behalf, while the finished product silos are good for 200m³.