Application of soft inner shells to reduce evaporation losses from oil storage tanks

The article develops and validates the feasibility of calculating the soft shell thickness used to eliminate evaporation losses from welded oil storage tanks during operation. Based on the assessment of existing technical means for reducing losses from evaporation of oil and petroleum products, a conclusion is made about the need to develop a new technical means – an inner soft shell, which is an oil-and-petrol-resistant soft shell located inside the tank. The design of vertical and horizontal cylindrical tanks with soft shell is proposed. The principle of the tank operation was checked on a mock-up. An experimental setup was built, tests were carried out. According to the test results, evaporation losses are excluded when using soft shell in tanks. The maximum shell thickness is calculated under conditions that prevent unacceptable deformations during operation. The minimum thickness is determined based on the tensile strength conditions of the soft shell’s self-weight during installation.