bimr,
I agree with you. It's a business risk of the owner. But, should an engineer rely on this? It is enough?
Stainless steel is the upper choice in food industry corresponding corrosion resistance and easy cleaning. Also stainless steel costs. So, manufacturers minimize the thickness as...
I have seen a lot of stainless steel tanks that are used for food storing or processing to fail. Like bottom and legs fail (correct MJCronin!). Also a fails in cooling jackets (50t tank) with a solution of propylene glycol inside (!). All these tanks are made with thin sheets of stainless...
Is there a code to design a stainless steel storage tank?
API codes provides thicker tanks than that is common manufactucted.
For instance for 5000 liters tank they use 2mm plates to manufacture
bottoms and 1.5mm for the shell.
