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Oil companies invest money in research (sometimes!) and this leads people that are not in the field with a lot of questions. Also some problems that happens are though and not easy to explain to students - things that look very simple can be very difficult in the field, with explosive atmospheres, harsh work conditions, precision requirements.

So, to sum it up, I saw no oil-engineering tag. And got curious if it was ok to post related questions here - there is drilling, measuring, and lots of things that involves engineers.

An example question below:

Imagine a cylindrical vertical steel tank, filled with liquid. In a big tank, the pressure the liquid exerts on the tank is enough to cause a displacement on the steel walls, making the tank "less cylindrical". Which is the most accurate model to analytically calculate the wall displacement as a function of height - fixing liquid fill level?

(also if you have the answer to the above question I can ask on the NOTmeta)

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  • $\begingroup$ Hint: example questions go a long way towards being able to provide more accurate answers for topicality. $\endgroup$
    – user16
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 at 3:05
  • $\begingroup$ How about Petroleum - Engineering? $\endgroup$
    – Mahendra Gunawardena
    Commented Feb 17, 2015 at 14:30

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Your example question is certainly on-topic.

The non-existence of an tag does not mean that questions on the subject can't be answered. The question you give as an example I would never think to tag with unless you specific called out this as an oil tank. It's fluid mechanics, pressure vessels, mechanics of materials, which are all part of the engineering used in the oil industry, but aren't exclusive to that. Lots of liquids need to be stored safely and effectively, and the answer to your question will apply to all of them.

So I say go for it. Whether or not the is useful is another matter, but from what I understand, tags are given a little bit of free reign in betas, and determinations about their utility are made closer to the point of graduation of the SE.

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    $\begingroup$ I think the accepted term is (and tag should be) petroleum engineering. It is worthy of its own tag as the petroleum industry has a bunch of its own codes and common practices, even if it's using principles of other fields of engineering. And I agree that such questions are definitely in scope. $\endgroup$
    – Ethan48
    Commented Feb 11, 2015 at 5:44

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