Final Year Project

I'd recruit some of my fellow students who are doing the same project.

You might look on the web for design tips.

We don't do homework here.

Did you Google," Design a storage tank"?

There is lots of information out there, all you have to do is look.

http://www.etank.com/

The OP's question was to "design" a tank. This is a school project. The site you direct him to doesn't teach him the mechanics of designing a tank. It does all the work for him through a software program. After he gets his degree, then he can use the program.

I agree with you that the student MUST understand what the calculator is doing in order to be sure that machine hasn't malfunctioned and produced a pipe with a diameter calculated using 4 as the value for pi.

And to speak intelligently to the customer and the insurance people when they ask him why the tank exploded violently, during commissioning.

Unfortunately, we are becoming the minority.

It's just a tool, like a calculator, or slide rule, it's an information source, like a reference book...These guys are using a different, better set of tools than you did...These are the tools of the trade, and he better know how to use them...

Yes it is a tool, but not before learning the principals. Schools used to prohibit the use of calculators until the student could work math on paper. That's the way the teacher knew if the student understood it. Today, a supermarket clerk can't figure out change if the register goes down. It's probably also true in all other businesses. I've seen it happen too many times to know today's young people don't understand even simple math. If the "no student left behind" mentality is progress, then something is terribly wrong. Get 'em in and get 'em out; don't bother if they know anything or not. When I went to school, you wouldn't graduate to the next class if you didn't make the grade. I never had to repeat a grade, but I did have to spend a few summer vacations making up for it.

Your school must have the API requirements

1. Acquire a copy of API 650.
2. Read it.
3. Follow the directions.

As to the OP, yes the API 650 standards can be intimating, but you have to tread through it, to understand it..

If this is your choice of topic for a fully accredited engineering school.... I believe that you are setting the bar too low. You should aim higher

Select another topic...

API-650 is a detailed prescriptive code that forces the designer into certain choices based on equations developed by a study group. Materials must be selected from a small list of choices....for various good reasons, but these reasons are not immediately given in the text of the code.

By comparison, if you were a final year student at a well known cooking school, would you prepare a simple packaged cake according to the instructions on the box and present it as your senior project ?