Reasonable questions have been posed about the concrete filling....but some back-up engineering work should tell if this is a feasible solution. What's the fuel it's to be filled with?
I'm asking because concrete will not likely be a close fit to the steel walls when all is said and done...concrete shrinks a little. And steel has a different expansion rate than concrete. So filling it with just about anything will be like "putting a brick in a toilet tank" method reducing the volume. You could put gravel in it and get the same result!!!
If you fill it with concrete and then proceed to seal the remaining part of the tank from the concrete, with, say, an epoxy/fiberglass seal or something like it that will resist the fuel, then you have what you are looking for. But the cost saving will be less.
I'm assuming there is no concern with corrosion on the bottom of the tank...the floor? If the seal is made at the top of the concrete the original floor integrity is of no concern except for structural purposes. I'm referring to the outside of the bottom, where water would have had a chance to do its work over the years....
There is probably some wording in the regs about doing some non-destructive testing to verify the integrity of the tank as well.
I'm also assuming that the Federal legal guidelines--the fine print--allow this kind of modification? (I would guess yes...but the redesign will likely need to be stamped by a PE.) Do the modern regs also demand a spill containment berm?
Your comments are just great about this project. Your boss must be a very cool guy in allowing this free thinking! Your methods of saving money are outside of the box, and sounds very much like what I had spent a lot of my working career in the sawmill doing....getting acceptable, low cost results from unconventional solutions...!!!
Jon.
PS--you are saving the motors in a different category of scrap....right on! But don't forget to have a look at the gearboxes as well. There may be quite a few boxes that are right angle worm drive boxes....they are pretty much obsolete now but back in the day they were heavily used. Anyway, the gearwheel in those boxes is very likely to be a huge chunk of brass or bronze and pretty simple for the yards to pull out.
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