Water Tank Collapse in Queensland

[hokie66]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...unshine-Coast-Public-University-Hospital.html

This happened on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane. 27000 tonnes of water. Washed some cars off the road and made a hell of a mess, but luckily no one was injured badly.

A very tall steel cylindrical tank, part of the construction of a new hospital. Remains to be seen whether it was caused by failure of the tank itself or by subsidence.

 

[Trenno]

Word on the grapevine is that the tank ripped.

 

[Ron]

Looks like a fairly thin-walled steel section for such a tall tank. I've designed similar ground storage tanks and the bottom steel would be in the 3/8" to 1/2" thickness range, thinning as you go up the tank. The failed sections look to be much thinner than that. Likely weld failure, but would be good to know the results of the failure investigation.