Cryogenic tank

A heat-insulated fluid-tight tank for holding very cold fluids, comprising a substantially rigid self-sustaining wall means for surrounding a hollow interior space in which a cryogenic fluid is adapted to be situated, said wall means having inner and outer surfaces, heat-insulating means engaging the inner surface of said wall means, said heat-insulating means terminating in a surface which is distant from and directed away from said wall means, and barrier-layer means situated next to and in engagement with the latter surface of said heat insulating means so as to be situated at the interior of said heat-insulation means and adapted to directly engage the cryogenic fluid, said barrier layer means being in the form of a relatively thin flexible laminated sheet material which includes a flexible glass-fiber fabric layer directly bonded to said surface of said heat insulation means, a thin, flexible, fluid-impervious metallic sheet made of a metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum, stainless steel, and Invar alloy and bonded to said glass-fiber fabric at a surface thereof opposite from said insulation means, a third layer bonded to the surface of said metallic sheet which is opposite from said glass-fiber fabric layer, said third layer being a glass-fiber fabric layer, said metallic layer having a thickness which is substantially less than the thickness of said glass-fiber fabric layer and said third layer, said barrier layer means further including a fourth layer for directly engaging the cryogenic fluid, said fourth layer being in the form of a thin, protective continuous film of plastic material, and wherein said barrier layer means is corrugated and has spaced portions which are directly bonded to said heat-insulation means while having between said spaced portions elongate portions, the area of which is sufficiently greater than the area of and distance between said spaced portions.