Can We Lift a Giant Tank with D-Bolts? Analyzing Shear Stress on Sheet Metal

[CanadaBoy89]

Hey so I am currently trying to calculate whether or not we can lift a giant tank made of corrugated sheet metal. I am looking for conceptual answers here, but will give some details.

A potential plan is to place a number of D-bolts (let's say 8 for now) through holes near the top of the sheet metal in order to lift the tank in the air using cables attached to a crane. The holes are a distance x from the top of the sheet metal, and the tank weighs 3000lbs. Basically, we need to find out if the sheet metal will tear due to shear stress, resulting in the need for more bolts.

Any help will be appreciated, just talk in terms of variables (thickness, E, diameter of hole, etc) and I will do the calculations myself. I'm simply drawing blanks as to how to approach this.

Thanks

 

[pongo38]

First, make a list of all the different ways in which failure could take place, including bolt shear, but other things as well. For each failure mode, seek for a mathematical model that will help you to evaluate it.