Insights on a concrete rectangular tank 1

[fa2070]

Hello,

I've just posted my vicissitudes designing a precast concrete rectangular tank over on the "Water treatment & distribution" forum. Cross-posting is not permitted, but the topic pertains to "Structural engineering" as well, so I cordially invite the structural experts of this forum to take a look at Insights on a concrete rectangular tank and share opinions and points of view with me.

Thank you in advance.

 

[JStephen]

Just some overall notes. First off, at some point, somebody has to accept design responsibility for the thing. Is that you or your bosses? It's easy to criticize someone else's design and say it's overdesigned, but if the person criticizing hasn't really gone through the design calculations to see, that criticism isn't alway real meaningful.

Secondly, somebody has got to build the thing. Is that your company, or are you just designers of it? Anyway, beware of inventing something new. If you have the proposed contractors scratching their heads wondering how to build the thing, you will not have good pricing for it.

Lastly, prior experience is a good guide to the success of a project. There are a lot of things that look good on paper that don't work in real life. On paper, you can put object A next to Object B with zero gap, and it's a waterproof joint. But does it work in real life? You don't always know until you've tried it. (I remember seeing years ago where a silo manufacturer had slip-formed some tanks- with very poor results- but it sure looked good on paper!) So be especially cautious if you wind up using detailing you wouldn't normally use.