Containment System

[flyfisher42]

I have not done much surveying since graduating from college, I was hoping for some advice on how to properly survey a earthened berm containment system for two large above ground tanks. I need to know the elevations of the top of berm and the bottom of berm to calculate the containment capacity.
The perimeter of the containment system is approximately 500ft.
The berm is approximately 10ft. high.

I'm assuming I should be doing a traverse around the containment berm and pick up my elevations on the top of berm and bottom of berm for calculations later.
Does that sound correct, any advice would be appreciated.

thanks,

 

[icelad]

Flyfisher42

Is this an existing berm? How exact would it need to be? Can you get to the toe of the inner slope? Is it an irregular shape? Assuming that it is circular and that it is fairly regular I would traverse the inner top of the bank, measure the elevation difference with a level, compute the square footage of the upper elevation, multiply by elevation difference to get gross volume, then figure the cross sectional area of slope, then multiply that by the perimeter distance. That gives you the volume of the slope. Subtract that from the gross volume and that should give you the available volume. Any questions give me a shout
John

 

[flyfisher42]

Yes the berm is existing, It needs to be an estimate, Yes I can access the toe of the slope, Yes it is an irregular shape.

Your message was my orignial plan, however I just recieved information to make the project a little more complicated.

The inside of the containment is very irregular and drains precipitation to one corner of the containment system. Therefore calculating the contianment volume is going to be much more involved.

Any easy ways to do it?

thanks,

 

[icelad]

Not that I know of the old way but I know there some add on programs for autocad that will do it. Take a number of shots and it will compute the volume. I would think that random shots plus all the breakline, about one every 15 feet or so would do it quite well. We used it to take the volume (51 million gallons) on an old 1900 water storage structure. Let me know if I can Help.
John

 

[MEM1]

We do this all the time in feedyard lagoons. Like John said, do the survey, then if you have the capabilities, draw contours. Export out the surface areas of the contours, and then you can put them in a spreadsheet to calculate an incremental volume. If you need help, let me know. I have a spreadsheet that will do the calculations as long as you can get me the contour surface areas. The spreadsheet is setup on 6 inch increments and gives volumes in cuft and acft. These can be converted to gallons or any other unit you would need.

Scott

 

[IRstuff]

If you download Google Earth, you can get coordinates directly from the satellite image of your structure, assuming it's more than 2 yrs old. Unfortunately, Google Earht's imagery is heavily compressed, so features are not that distinct.

MSN Virtual Earth has better image quality, but no real measurement capability.

TTFN

 

[flyfisher42]

Thank you John and Scott for the suggestions.
Unfortunatly I do not have access to the add on program for Acad, in fact I work with Acad Lite on a daily basis.

Scott, I believe I was planning on doing what your talking about. Let me confirm. I should create a contour map of the containment area from the top of berm inward towards the drain and get the best topo. as I can (time is limited) and then calculate the area of the layers of the contour map to get volume by using the Acad "area" command and the elevations differences between each contour line.

Can I get a copy of the volume spreadsheet you mentioned? I don't anticipate doing this type of project again, however the spreadsheet would be a nice addition to my tool box.

thanks again for the advice,

 

[MEM1]

What format do you want it in? I have quatro pro 8 and excel 2002.

 

[flyfisher42]

I apologize for the delay MEM1, I have been absolutly swamped with zero time for the net.

EXCEL please.

thank you,

 

[MEM1]

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/murrisons/lst?.dir=/My+Documents&.view=l

Follow the above link. The spreadsheet is used for square or rectangular structures and is setup so you enter the top width and length, side slope, and depth and it calculates the volume based on the average end area at 1/2 foot intervals. If your structure isn't square or rectangular, just input your surface areas in manually and forget about the length, width, side slopes. You will still need to put in the total depth. The spreadsheet calculates usable volume from the top down. So, you will see 0 at the top. This means the structure is completely full of water and has 0 feet of usable volume. Your total structure volume will be at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Let me know if you need any assistance.

Scott

 

[flyfisher42]

thanks Scott,
I'm looking forward to working with it soon.