I'd agree that it varies, and that lined tanks are common to the point of universal, but the heat transfer that might well disrupt stratification is not an all/nothing thing - probably somewhere in between.
The more recent data I could find on thermal conductivity of "glass" lining is similar to that for true epoxy linings and other such stuff I once designed with/around. That more recent data that gives a value for the thermal conductivity of the glass as about 2% +/- a bit of that of steel. However, that's not the whole story with respect to how well/poorly a barrier/lining conducts heat. A glass lining is much thinner than most pressure boundaries (steel walls) - something like ~ 0.3 mm or so, or something like 0.01" +/-some.
The rate of heat transfer through a homogeneous barrier whose thermal conductivity is isotropic is inversely proportional to it's thickness. I'd take an educated guess and say the OP's tank wall is about 0.13" thick. A back of the envelope on relative ability to conduct heat in a radial direction (outward) might be about 3 or 4 to 1, tank wall to glass lining, the tank wall being thicker but with much higher thermal conductivity vs. a much thinner glass lining that has much poorer thermal conductivity.
However, I'd also estimate (and here the heat transfer explanations/estimates start to get sticky and start to involve dimensionless groups like Biot numbers, Nusselt #'s and others, and boundary layer thickness estimates of the tank fluid under natural convection and other stuff) that the rate of heat conduction through the ling will still be of an order of magnitude or so more than the natural convection coefficient of the tank fluid at the wall, and that's what determines the relative importance of the tank wall's ability to disrupt tank fluid stratification.
Once the heat does get through to the steel portion of the tank, the greater tank wall thickness (the 0.13" or so) and the greater thermal conductivity of the steel will make it easier for conduction of heat from where the tank wall is warmer to where the tank is colder - in our example "down" the tank to the very same portions of the tank where the water is colder - and then, once it gets there, to transfer that heat in the same manner as when it was going "out", but this time in the opposite direction - going "into" the water, and thus causing a local heating of a portion of the fluid, changing that (local) fluid "chunk's" density relative to the surrounding fluid and moving that "chunk" in a direction that will tend to reduce stratification.
I'd be quite surprised if the cracks in linings that eventually cause most DHW tank failures contribute little, one way or the other to heat transfer or stratification.
I was not and am not trying to imply that this is a big contributing factor in killing tank stratification, but unless all the laws of Thermodynamics as they relate to entropy, and all the principles of heat transfer dealing with conduction and convection have been repealed or replaced, I believe the above is a reasonable, if greatly simplified, approximation of what will happen.
My purpose in citing tank/lining axial conduction was as an example of many of the (possibly) unknown or unconsidered mechanisms and /or conditions that might exist that would contribute to hasten the destruction of thermal stratification in situations similar to those the OP describes. It's also perhaps an example of the many contributory factors as to why thermal stratification is quite fragile and thus quite easy to disrupt or destroy, and not something to place a lot of reliance upon when looking for ways to increase thermal efficiency in things like solar thermal collector systems.
As usual, take what you want of the above. Scrap the rest.
The more recent data I could find on thermal conductivity of "glass" lining is similar to that for true epoxy linings and other such stuff I once designed with/around. That more recent data that gives a value for the thermal conductivity of the glass as about 2% +/- a bit of that of steel. However, that's not the whole story with respect to how well/poorly a barrier/lining conducts heat. A glass lining is much thinner than most pressure boundaries (steel walls) - something like ~ 0.3 mm or so, or something like 0.01" +/-some.
The rate of heat transfer through a homogeneous barrier whose thermal conductivity is isotropic is inversely proportional to it's thickness. I'd take an educated guess and say the OP's tank wall is about 0.13" thick. A back of the envelope on relative ability to conduct heat in a radial direction (outward) might be about 3 or 4 to 1, tank wall to glass lining, the tank wall being thicker but with much higher thermal conductivity vs. a much thinner glass lining that has much poorer thermal conductivity.
However, I'd also estimate (and here the heat transfer explanations/estimates start to get sticky and start to involve dimensionless groups like Biot numbers, Nusselt #'s and others, and boundary layer thickness estimates of the tank fluid under natural convection and other stuff) that the rate of heat conduction through the ling will still be of an order of magnitude or so more than the natural convection coefficient of the tank fluid at the wall, and that's what determines the relative importance of the tank wall's ability to disrupt tank fluid stratification.
Once the heat does get through to the steel portion of the tank, the greater tank wall thickness (the 0.13" or so) and the greater thermal conductivity of the steel will make it easier for conduction of heat from where the tank wall is warmer to where the tank is colder - in our example "down" the tank to the very same portions of the tank where the water is colder - and then, once it gets there, to transfer that heat in the same manner as when it was going "out", but this time in the opposite direction - going "into" the water, and thus causing a local heating of a portion of the fluid, changing that (local) fluid "chunk's" density relative to the surrounding fluid and moving that "chunk" in a direction that will tend to reduce stratification.
I'd be quite surprised if the cracks in linings that eventually cause most DHW tank failures contribute little, one way or the other to heat transfer or stratification.
I was not and am not trying to imply that this is a big contributing factor in killing tank stratification, but unless all the laws of Thermodynamics as they relate to entropy, and all the principles of heat transfer dealing with conduction and convection have been repealed or replaced, I believe the above is a reasonable, if greatly simplified, approximation of what will happen.
My purpose in citing tank/lining axial conduction was as an example of many of the (possibly) unknown or unconsidered mechanisms and /or conditions that might exist that would contribute to hasten the destruction of thermal stratification in situations similar to those the OP describes. It's also perhaps an example of the many contributory factors as to why thermal stratification is quite fragile and thus quite easy to disrupt or destroy, and not something to place a lot of reliance upon when looking for ways to increase thermal efficiency in things like solar thermal collector systems.
As usual, take what you want of the above. Scrap the rest.
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