The purpose of our project is to investigate the effect of filling, storage and discharge of the contents of a thin-walled steel silo through an eccentric hopper ... The effects of concentric discharge through a conical right-circular hopper which, along with the silo barrel itself, is axisymmetric, are relatively well-documented (Rotter, 2001), and various standard results for the pressure distributions (e.g. Janssen theory) and stress resultants (e.g. bending and membrane theories) have been derived. Unfortunately, the effects of discharge through an eccentric hopper are not yet well understood. This is due to the non-linearity of the problem as a result of the large warping and bending stresses (Rotter, 1987a) which, from observation, are seen to be introduced into the hopper wall making modelling and derivation of governing formulae extremely difficult... One may ask: "Why is this at all important? Can't one not simply build symmetrical silos with equally symmetrical hoppers and..