---
title: "Axial-compression behavior of prefabricated underground silo joints with steel and concrete-filled"
id: "plos-one-22-novel-prefabricated-joints-for-underground-silos-with-steel-cavity-and-concrete"
canonical_url: "https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-22-novel-prefabricated-joints-for-underground-silos-with-steel-cavity-and-concrete"
content_type: "clinical_feed_article"
specialty: "General"
source_name: "PLOS ONE (Medicine)"
source_url: "https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0361019"
published_at: "2026-10-23T14:00:00.000Z"
evidence_level: "Journal Feed"
license: "CC-BY-NC-4.0 / Informational Use"
---
# Axial-compression behavior of prefabricated underground silo joints with steel and concrete-filled
## Provenance & Clinical Metadata
- **Canonical URL:** https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/plos-one-22-novel-prefabricated-joints-for-underground-silos-with-steel-cavity-and-concrete
- **Specialty:** [General](https://medichelpline.com/clinical-feed/general.md)
- **Primary Source:** PLOS ONE (Medicine)
- **Source URL:** [Original Journal Publication](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0361019)
- **Published At:** 2026-10-23T14:00:00.000Z
- **Evidence Rating:** Journal Feed
## Executive GIST (TL;DR)
- The study compared two novel prefabricated joint types for a **prefabricated underground silo** system: a steel cavity joint and a concrete-filled cavity joint. Full-scale axial compression tests and nonlinear numerical simulations were used. - Investigators conducted full-scale axial compression tests to assess load-bearing, deformation, yielding, and failure modes of specimens with each joint configuration. The manuscript reports observed failure processes in detail. - The study team performed three-dimensional nonlinear finite-element analysis using **ABAQUS** to reproduce test responses and to probe load-transfer mechanisms between plates, cavity infill, and prefabricated concrete elements. - Data indicated the **steel plate** in the steel-cavity joint carried roughly 41% of the applied load during the elastic stage; failure was driven by instability of the external waterproof steel plate. - By contrast, the cavity concrete in the concrete-filled joint carried about 75% of the applied load in the elastic stage; the specimen failed by crushing of prefabricated concrete blocks. - The concrete-filled cavity joint delivered higher initial stiffness and more than a 28% increase in peak axial load capacity compared with the steel cavity joint. - Authors examined the effect of cavity concrete strength and concluded the strength grade in the cavity may be reduced to improve material-use efficiency; specific optimized grades were not prescribed in the abstract. - The study documents modeling and experimental agreement, describes load-sharing between components, and discusses joint design parameters that influence compressive performance. - The authors acknowledged technical limitations and identified directions for future research; the source provides these limitations and calls for additional investigation rather than regulatory milestones.
## Clinical Analysis & Structured Key Points
Novel prefabricated joints for underground silos with steel cavity and concrete-filled cavity: Axial compression tests and numerical simulations | PLOS One Browse Subject Areas ? Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. For more information about PLOS Subject Areas, click here . Article Authors Metrics Comments Media Coverage Reader Comments Figures Figures Abstract In terms of new materials, innovative technologies, and advanced construction techniques, the prefabricated steel plate-concrete composite underground silo offers an effective solution to the key challenges of cost, construction duration, and waterproofing associated with conventional reinforced concrete underground silos. However, joints represent critical weak components in prefabricated structures, and the development of simple and efficient joint configurations is essential for the further advancement and application of novel prefabricated underground silos. To address this issue, two novel prefabricated joints, namely the steel cavity joint and the concrete-filled cavity joint, are proposed, and their axial compressive performance is investigated. First, full-scale axial compression tests are conducted to evaluate the load-bearing, deformation, yielding, and failure behavior of specimens incorporating different joint configurations. Subsequently, nonlinear finite element analysis of both specimens is performed using ABAQUS to further elucidate their load-transfer mechanisms. Furthermore, the effects of key joint parameters on the axial compressive performance are discussed. The results show that the specimen with a steel cavity joint primarily fails due to the instability of external waterproof steel plate under axial compression, with the steel plate contributing approximately 41% of the applied load during the elastic stage. In contrast, the specimen with a concrete-filled cavity exhibits crushing failure of prefabricated concrete blocks, with the cavity concrete contributing approximately 75% of the applied load during the elastic stage. Compared with the steel cavity joint, the concrete-filled cavity joint exhibits significantly improved initial stiffness and achieves an increase of more than 28% in peak load capacity. Moreover, the concrete strength grade in the cavity can be appropriately reduced to optimize material utilization efficiency. Citation: Li J, Chuai J (2026) Novel prefabricated joints for underground silos with steel cavity and concrete-filled cavity: Axial compression tests and numerical simulations. PLoS One 21(10): e0361019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361019 Editor: Zhipeng Zhao, Tongji University, CHINA Received: December 19, 2025; Accepted: October 5, 2026; Published: October 23, 2026 Copyright: © 2026 Li, Chuai. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. Funding: The research was supported by the Project of Scientific and Technological Breakthrough of Henan Province (Grant No. 242102110347) and the Key Research Project of Colleges and Universities of Henan Province (Grant No. 23B560014). The funders contributed to funding acquisition, investigation, supervision, validation, and writing - review and editing of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Introduction Food security has always been a major strategic issue related to national economic development, social stability, and national autonomy. As an essential facility for grain storage and distribution, the granary plays an irreplaceable role in ensuring the security of grain supply. In the context of the dual carbon strategy and the pursuit of high-quality development, land conservation, environmental sustainability, and low-carbon performance in granary construction has become a major challenge for the grain industry. Compared with traditional aboveground granaries, underground granaries offer significant advantages, including lower storage temperatures, environmental friendliness, and land conservation [ 1 – 3 ]. Previous studies have investigated the structural performance [ 4 – 6 ] and design methods of reinforced concrete underground silos. These studies have consistently indicated that reinforced concrete remains the predominant structural material for underground silos [ 7 , 8 ]. However, due to its relatively high costs and long construction periods, as well as deficiencies in waterproofing performance and buoyancy resistance, such underground granaries are difficult to promote and apply on a large scale. Therefore, numerous researchers have carried out extensive studies and proposed a variety of improvement strategies. Lining the inner surface of concrete silo walls with plastic panels represents a relatively novel approach [ 9 – 11 ]. In this system, polypropylene (PP) plastic panels are integrally cast with concrete through plastic joints [ 12 , 13 ]. Zhang et al. [ 9 ] investigated the stress distribution and mechanical behavior of the plastic waterproof liner under water pressure through hydrostatic tests and finite element analysis. They further examined the relationship between joint spacing and the water pressure resistance of the structure. Wang et al. [ 12 ] studied the pull-out performance of smooth and grooved PP rods embedded in concrete. The results revealed that the bond-slip curve between PP rods and concrete can be divided into three stages: an elastic stage, a local cracking stage, and a descending stage, with the surface morphology ofPP rods having the greatest influence on their pull-out performance. Despite these efforts, the relatively limited development of existing research systems and the lack of relevant codes and standards have restricted the practical application of these research outcomes. At present, the findings remain primarily serve as reference for the waterproofing and anti-floating design of underground silos, and the long-standing challenges associated with insufficient waterproofing and anti-floating performance have not yet fully addressed. Furthermore, Wang et al. [ 14 ] proposed a prefabricated steel-concrete underground grain silo (referred to as the prefabricated underground silo) system. This innovative system integrates prefabrication with composite structural technology [ 15 ] and utilizes a top-down construction method to avoid extensive excavation, providing an effective solution to the challenges of foundation pit support. The composite structure is lined with single-sided steel plates that function not only as structural components but also as waterproofing layers [ 16 ]. This configuration largely overcomes the limitations associated with large-diameter reinforced-concrete underground silos and has been progressively applied in both aboveground and underground construction projects, including bridges, tunnels, and foundation pits, demonstrating favorable economic and social benefits [ 17 – 19 ]. Joints are the most critical and vulnerable components in prefabricated structures, with their connection methods and mechanical properties serving as key factors influencing the overall structural strength and stability [ 20 – 23 ]. In prefabricated structures for tunnels and metro projects, extensive research has been conducted on joint types and their mechanical behavior [ 22 – 26 ]. For example, Zhou et al. [ 27 ] investigated the dynamic response and damage characteristics of gravity-type mortise-and-tenon joints, bolted mortise-and-tenon joints, and steel-plate-reinforced mortise-and-tenon joints under impact loading. Their findings highlighted the necessity of enhancing joint stiffness in the impact-resistant design of prefabricated tunnel structures. Zhang et al. [ 28 ] carried out shear model tests under four working conditions to examine the performance of socket joints in utility tunnels, and conducted a comparative analysis of failure modes and shear resistance. Jia et al. [ 29 ] conducted full-scale tests on shield tunnel segment joints to investigate their flexural behavior and elucidate the failure process and load-bearing mechanism of joints. Zhang et al. [ 30 ] combined full-ring tests with numerical simulations to explore the mechanical behavior and load-bearing mechanism of shield tunnel linings with socket joints. Furthermore, Chen et al. [ 31 ] conducted physical and numerical studies on the seismic performance characteristics of multi-story and multi-span prefabricated subway station structures. The results indicated that the column ends in the upper layer are the weak points of the multi-story prefabricated subway station structure, experiencing significant damage during earthquakes. Zhao et al. [ 32 ] proposed a resilient slip-friction connection (RSFC-SCC) for prefabricated underground structures to enhance their seismic performance and facilitate rapid post-earthquake recovery. Using a subway as a case study, they conducted nonlinear time history analyses to validate the effectiveness and elastic characteristics of the RSFC-SCC. By contrast, research on joints in prefabricated underground silos remains relatively limited because this structural system is still at an early stage of development. Wang et al. [ 33 – 35 ] proposed a novel dry joint composed of three steel plates, and through full-scale comparative experiments, evaluated the flexural and compressive performance of specimens with and without joints. Building on this, Zhang et al. [ 36 – 38 ] further introduced two joint forms, embedded trapezoidal steel plate joints and bolt-weld hybrid joints, and studied their failure modes and flexural capacity through symmetric bending tests and finite element simulations. The results demonstrated that these joint forms exhibited flexural and compressive performance comparable to that of jointless specimens. Nevertheless, the three-steel-plate dry joint requires numerous steel plates and welds, while the embedded trapezoidal steel plate joint and the bolted-welded hybrid joint are constrained by construction difficulties and complex structural detailing, respectively. These drawbacks limit their practicality and hinder their widespread application in engineering practice. To develop an efficient, economical, and easy-to-construct connection for prefabricated steel-concrete composite underground grain silo walls, this study proposes two novel joint configurations based on the three-steel-plate dry joint reported in Ref [ 34 ]. Compared with existing underground silo joints, the proposed configurations provide a simpler structural layout, fewer welded connections, and improved constructability. Full-scale axial compression tests and numerical simulations were conducted on silo wall specimens with different joint configurations to evaluate their mechanical performance and reveal their load-transfer mechanisms. Through a comparative analysis of the mechanical behavior of the proposed joint types, feasible vertical connection schemes for silo walls under different service conditions were identified. The findings provide valuable insights into the design of vertical wall joints in prefabricated underground silos and contribute to the further development and engineering application of prefabricated underground grain storage systems. Axial compression test A large-diameter reinforced concrete underground grain silo (test silo) constructed in Henan Province was selected as the structural prototype. The silo was designed with a storage capacity of approximately 5,000 t (wheat), an internal diameter of 25 m, and a composite wall approximately 20 m in height and 0.31 m in thickness. The structural scheme is described in detail in the literature [ 14 ], and its cross-sectional schematic is shown in Fig 1a . The wall structure of the prefabricated underground granary is illustrated in Fig 1b . The horizontal joint between the upper and lower prefabricated blocks along the circumferential direction of the silo wall is defined as the circumferential joint, and the vertical joint between the left and right prefabricated blocks along the height of the silo wall is defined as the vertical joint. According to the column-shell theory, it can be seen that the silo wall is mainly circumferentially compressed under the action of external water and soil pressure. Therefore, this study focuses on analyzing the axial compressive behavior of the vertical joints in the composite silo wall. Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 1. Structural configuration of the prefabricated underground granary. (a) cross-sectional view of the prefabricated underground granary. (b) schematic of the prefabricated underground granary wall structure. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361019.g001 Design of specimens and joints Based on the structural configuration shown in Fig 1 and the provisions of the Code for Design of Composite Structures [ 39 ], the prefabricated composite silo wall segments and their corresponding joint configurations were designed. Although the prototype wall is curved, curved specimens require specialized loading equipment and make it difficult to satisfy the desired boundary conditions. Therefore, to ensure that the stress state remained representative of the prototype while facilitating laboratory testing, flat specimens were adopted in place of the curved wall segments. A total of four prefabricated wall segments were fabricated. Two segments were connected through a single joint to form one test specimen, resulting in two full-scale specimens. Both specimens had identical geometric dimensions, with a total length of 2200 mm, a width of 1000 mm, and a thickness of 310 mm. The inner layer of prefabricated blocks consisted of a 10 mm thick steel plate, while the outer layer was composed of 300 mm thick concrete. The inner steel plate was connected to the precast concrete block by means of headed studs. The steel grade was Q355, and the concrete strength grade was C40. The geometric dimension and the three-dimensional configuration of the specimen are shown in Fig 2 . Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 2. Schematic illustration of the specimen: (a) specimen dimensions (Unit: mm). (b) three-dimensional structural configuration. 1. Inner steel plate, 2. Headed studs (φ 19), 3. Prefabricated concrete block, 4. Reinforcement mesh (φ 8 @ 150), 5. Headed studs (φ 13), 6. External waterproof steel plate, 7. Outside bound steel plate, 8. Internal waterproof steel plate. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361019.g002 Based on the construction characteristics of underground silos, two types of joints were designed, namely the steel cavity (SC) joint and the concrete-filled cavity (CFC) joint. The SC joint is a dry-type connection consisting of two bound steel plates, an external waterproof steel plate, and an internal waterproof steel plate. The bound steel plates were designed with an inclined configuration to facilitate top-down construction and the integrated implementation of foundation pit support [ 34 ]. All three components have an equal thickness of 16 mm and are connected together by welds. The external and internal waterproof steel plates are 240 mm and 200 mm long, respectively. The CFC joint adopts a combined dry-wet connection method. Based on the configuration of the SC joint, the cavity is filled with C25 micro-expansive concrete. In this study, the prefabricated steel-plate concrete specimens assembled with the SC joint and the CFC joint are referred to as PSC-SC and PSC-CFC, respectively. The schematic diagram of the structure of the two joints is shown in Fig 3 . Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 3. Schematic diagram of SC and CFC joints. (a) Cross-section of SC joint. (b) 3D view of SC joint. (c) Cross-section of CFC joint. (d) 3D view of CFC joint. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361019.g003 Specimen fabrication and material property testing As shown in Fig 4 a and Fig 4b , the specimen fabrication process involves the processing of steel components, the pouring and curing of concrete, the joint treatment and the overall assembly of prefabricated blocks. The steel components were fabricated in batches by a structural steel manufacturer in accordance with standardized procedures. The prefabricated concrete blocks were cast using commercially available C40 concrete in batches. Adequate compaction was achieved using a vibrating rod, and the top surface was manually leveled upon completion of the casting. After 28 days of standard curing and joint treatment, the prefabricated blocks were assembled. Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 4. Specimen fabrication and material property testing. (a) Fabrication of prefabricated blocks, including steel component fabrication, formwork assembly, concrete pouring, and curing. (b) Joint treatment process, including joint welding, concrete mixing, and curing, together with the standard specimen geometry. (c) Concrete material property testing, including compressive specimen preparation and loading tests. (d) Steel plate material property testing, including tensile elongation and fracture performance evaluation. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361019.g004 As shown in Fig 4d , standard steel specimens fabricated from the same material as the test specimens were subjected to tensile tests using a universal testing machine. The testing machine has a maximum load capacity of 600 kN and a load measurement resolution of 1/20,000. The measured mechanical properties of steel plates are presented in Table 1 . Additionally, standard concrete compressive strength cubes with dimensions of 150 × 150 × 150 mm were cast in accordance with the Code for Design of Concrete Structures (GB 50010) [ 40 ]. The compression tests were conducted using an automatic compression testing machine (JYE-2000A), as illustrated in Fig 4c , and the resulting concrete strength values are summarized in Table 2 . Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Table 1. Standard dimensions and material properties of steel plates. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361019.t001 Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Table 2. Measured concrete strength. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361019.t002 Experimental method The loading configuration for the axial compression test is shown in Fig 5 . The loading device comprised an electro-hydraulic servo loading system (YAJ-12000) with a maximum loading capacity of 1200 t. As shown in Fig 5b , a restraint was installed to prevent misalignment of the specimen during loading. The data acquisition system adopted the DH3816N data logger, with each unit providing 60 channels. Displacement measurements were conducted using the YHD-50 displacement gauge, which had a measurement accuracy of 0.01 mm. Steel and concrete strain gauges were installed on the corresponding materials to measure strain. Download: PNG larger image TIFF original image Fig 5. Schematic diagram of the experimental loading device. (a) Front view of the long-column loading system. (b) Side view of the boundary-limiting device. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361019.g005 To investigate the strength and stiffness of silo wall joints under axial pressure, displacement and strain measurement points were arranged on both sides of specimens. As illustrated in Fig 6 , PSC-SC and PSC-CFC had an identical layout of displacement and strain gauges. The total axial deformation of the specimen was obtained by subtracting the average displacement of gauges on the top bearing plate (YW9-YW10, YW19-YW20) from the average displacement of those on
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