API 650: Welded Storage Tank Design, Wind & Seismic
Design and check tanks with confidence — shell thickness, roofs, wind girders, Annex E seismic, anchorage & welding
What you'll learn
Apply the API 650 scope and select the right tank configuration — cone, dome, and external or internal floating roof
Read and complete a tank design datasheet from product and service conditions
Calculate shell-course thickness by the one-foot method and the variable-design-point method
Design bottom and annular plates, including layout, overlap and slope
Design fixed roofs and the frangible roof-to-shell joint, and understand floating-roof design and seals
Size top and intermediate wind girders for shell stability
Carry out wind overturning and anchorage design, and Annex E seismic design with freeboard
Account for foundation and settlement, and design anchor bolts for wind and seismic uplift
Design shell and roof nozzles and appurtenances, and select materials for toughness and MDMT
Specify welding, inspection during construction, and the hydrostatic test and handover
Requirements
No prior tank design experience is required — the code context and design logic are built from the ground up
Any engineering or technical background is enough to follow the course
Comfortable with basic algebra — every design method is worked step by step, so you do not need advanced maths
No software or purchases needed — the methods follow API 650 directly, and a copy of the code is useful alongside the course but not required
Description
▸Storage tanks look simple and are anything but.
A tank is a thin steel shell holding thousands of tonnes of liquid, standing in wind and seismic load, on soil that settles. Get the shell thickness, the roof, the anchorage or the foundation wrong and you get a leak, a collapse, or a loss of containment. API 650 is the code that stops that happening — and this course teaches it as an engineering discipline, not a document to skim.
▸Tank design is a skill worth having
Most mechanical engineers never learn it. Storage and terminal projects, EPC tank packages and vendor design reviews all need engineers who can size a shell course, run a seismic check and challenge a supplier's submission — and there are far fewer of those than the work requires. This course gives you that capability in a form you can use on Monday.
▸What you will master
- Calculate shell-course thickness by both the one-foot method and the variable-design-point method, and know which applies when
- Carry out Annex E seismic design — impulsive and convective masses, overturning, freeboard — the part of API 650 most engineers avoid
- Run wind overturning and anchorage design, and size anchor bolts for wind and seismic uplift
- Read and complete a tank design datasheet from product and service conditions
- Design fixed roofs and the frangible roof-to-shell joint that provides emergency venting, and understand floating-roof design and seals
- Size top and intermediate wind girders for shell stability
- Design bottom and annular plates — layout, overlap and slope
- Account for foundation and settlement in the design
- Design shell and roof nozzles and appurtenances, and select materials for toughness and MDMT
- Specify welding, inspection during construction, and the hydrostatic test and handover
▸Taught as design, not as code recital
Six structured sections take you from code scope and tank configuration through shell, bottom and roof design, into wind, seismic and settlement, then nozzles, materials, welding and inspection. Every method is built up with the engineering logic behind it, so you understand why the code says what it says — which is what you need when a real design falls outside the neat case.
There is no filler here. This is a focused course you can work through in a few evenings, not twenty hours of the standard read aloud.
▸
Who this course is for
Mechanical and structural engineers who design or specify welded storage tanks to API 650
Project and EPC engineers who review or check tank designs and vendor submissions
Tank inspectors and API 653 holders who want the design-side knowledge behind the inspection code
Terminal, storage and infrastructure engineers responsible for new tank projects
Graduate and early-career engineers building a structured foundation in tank design
Published 7/2026
MP4 | Video: h264, 1920x1080 | Audio: AAC, 44.1 KHz, 2 Ch
Language: English | Duration: 3h 26m | Size: 3.03 GB
Download
*
Design and check tanks with confidence — shell thickness, roofs, wind girders, Annex E seismic, anchorage & welding
What you'll learn
Apply the API 650 scope and select the right tank configuration — cone, dome, and external or internal floating roof
Read and complete a tank design datasheet from product and service conditions
Calculate shell-course thickness by the one-foot method and the variable-design-point method
Design bottom and annular plates, including layout, overlap and slope
Design fixed roofs and the frangible roof-to-shell joint, and understand floating-roof design and seals
Size top and intermediate wind girders for shell stability
Carry out wind overturning and anchorage design, and Annex E seismic design with freeboard
Account for foundation and settlement, and design anchor bolts for wind and seismic uplift
Design shell and roof nozzles and appurtenances, and select materials for toughness and MDMT
Specify welding, inspection during construction, and the hydrostatic test and handover
Requirements
No prior tank design experience is required — the code context and design logic are built from the ground up
Any engineering or technical background is enough to follow the course
Comfortable with basic algebra — every design method is worked step by step, so you do not need advanced maths
No software or purchases needed — the methods follow API 650 directly, and a copy of the code is useful alongside the course but not required
Description
▸Storage tanks look simple and are anything but.
A tank is a thin steel shell holding thousands of tonnes of liquid, standing in wind and seismic load, on soil that settles. Get the shell thickness, the roof, the anchorage or the foundation wrong and you get a leak, a collapse, or a loss of containment. API 650 is the code that stops that happening — and this course teaches it as an engineering discipline, not a document to skim.
▸Tank design is a skill worth having
Most mechanical engineers never learn it. Storage and terminal projects, EPC tank packages and vendor design reviews all need engineers who can size a shell course, run a seismic check and challenge a supplier's submission — and there are far fewer of those than the work requires. This course gives you that capability in a form you can use on Monday.
▸What you will master
- Calculate shell-course thickness by both the one-foot method and the variable-design-point method, and know which applies when
- Carry out Annex E seismic design — impulsive and convective masses, overturning, freeboard — the part of API 650 most engineers avoid
- Run wind overturning and anchorage design, and size anchor bolts for wind and seismic uplift
- Read and complete a tank design datasheet from product and service conditions
- Design fixed roofs and the frangible roof-to-shell joint that provides emergency venting, and understand floating-roof design and seals
- Size top and intermediate wind girders for shell stability
- Design bottom and annular plates — layout, overlap and slope
- Account for foundation and settlement in the design
- Design shell and roof nozzles and appurtenances, and select materials for toughness and MDMT
- Specify welding, inspection during construction, and the hydrostatic test and handover
▸Taught as design, not as code recital
Six structured sections take you from code scope and tank configuration through shell, bottom and roof design, into wind, seismic and settlement, then nozzles, materials, welding and inspection. Every method is built up with the engineering logic behind it, so you understand why the code says what it says — which is what you need when a real design falls outside the neat case.
There is no filler here. This is a focused course you can work through in a few evenings, not twenty hours of the standard read aloud.
▸
Who this course is for
Mechanical and structural engineers who design or specify welded storage tanks to API 650
Project and EPC engineers who review or check tank designs and vendor submissions
Tank inspectors and API 653 holders who want the design-side knowledge behind the inspection code
Terminal, storage and infrastructure engineers responsible for new tank projects
Graduate and early-career engineers building a structured foundation in tank design
Published 7/2026
MP4 | Video: h264, 1920x1080 | Audio: AAC, 44.1 KHz, 2 Ch
Language: English | Duration: 3h 26m | Size: 3.03 GB
Download
*