The chief engineer of refinery operations is not satisfied with the preliminary design for storage tanks to be used as part of a plant expansion programme. The engineer who submitted the design was called in and asked to reconsider the overall dimensions in the light of an article in the Chemical Engineer, entitled “How to size future process vessels?” The original design submitted called for 4 tanks 5.2 m in diameter and 7 m in height. From a graph of the article, the engineer found that the present ratio of height to diameter of 1.35 is 111% of the minimum cost and that the minimum cost for a tank was when the ratio of height to diameter was 4 : 1. The cost for the tank design as originally submitted was estimated to be Rs. 9,00,000. What are the optimum tank dimensions if the volume remains the same as for the original design? What total savings may be expected through the redesign?

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Solution a Original design Volumetank r2 h 262 7 14872 m3 b New design Optimal ratio of the hei... View the full answer