Storage Tanks and Vessels

Storage tank
A storage tank is a container, usually for holding liquids, sometimes for compressed gases (gas tank).
Storage tanks operate under no (or very little) pressure, distinguishing them from pressure vessels. Storage
tanks are often cylindrical in shape, perpendicular to the ground with flat bottoms, and a fixed or floating
roof. There are usually many environmental regulations applied to the design and operation of storage tanks,
often depending on the nature of the fluid contained within. Aboveground storage tanks (AST) differ from
underground (UST) storage tanks in the kinds of regulations that are applied.
Storage tanks are available in many shapes: vertical and horizontal cylindrical; open top and closed top; flat
bottom, cone bottom, slope bottom and dish bottom. Large tanks tend to be vertical cylindrical, or to have
rounded corners (transition from vertical side wall to bottom profile) to easier withstand hydraulic
hydrostatically induced pressure of contained liquid. Most container tanks for handling liquids during
transportation are designed to handle varying degrees of pressure.
A large storage tank is sometimes mounted on a lorry or on an articulated lorry trailer, which is then called a
tanker.
Pressure vessel
A pressure vessel is a closed container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure different from the
ambient pressure.
The pressure differential is potentially dangerous and many fatal accidents have occurred in the history of
their development and operation. Consequently, their design, manufacture, and operation are regulated by
engineering authorities backed up by laws. For these reasons, the definition of a pressure vessel varies from
country to country, but involves parameters such as maximum safe operating pressure and temperature.
Uses
Pressure vessels are used in a variety of applications in both industry and the private sector. They appear in
these sectors as industrial compressed air receivers and domestic hot water storage tanks. Other examples
of pressure vessels are: diving cylinder, recompression chamber, distillation towers, autoclaves and many
other vessels in mining or oil refineries and petrochemical plants, nuclear reactor vessel, habitat of a space
ship, habitat of a submarine, pneumatic reservoir, hydraulic reservoir under pressure, rail vehicle airbrake
reservoir, road vehicle airbrake reservoir and storage vessels for liquified gases such as ammonia, chlorine,
propane, butane and LPG.
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