Volume of Horizontal Cylindrical Tank at angle

[Trevorsg80]

Hello All. Hopefully this is the best place for this question. It did not seem applicable to other forums.

The question I have is I have a horizontal configured storage tank with capsule ends that is set on an angle for drainage. I need to know what the volume of this tank is at any height the fluid is at. I have an instrument that will tell me the height but I need to convert this into a volume. The problem is the angle. This throws everything off on me. Is there a program or calculator out there that anybody knows of that will do this for me so I do not have to high level calculus by hand? I've attached a drawing of what I am talking about.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JStephen]

Simpson's Rule and a spreadsheet should do the trick. Integrate from end to end along the tank axis. At any point along the axis, it should be fairly simple to calculate the cross-sectional area of the fluid.

That's not "high level" calculus, that's plain ol' calculus.

 

[Trevorsg80]

Other than very basic derivitives everything in calculus is high level to me.

 

[TD2K]

Google has lots of hits for the volume of an inclined cylinder. For an inclined head, not so much but I didn't do a lot of looking.

 

[JStephen]

If you work off the axis of the tank, it's fairly simple to figure the radius at any point in the head, and then at every cross-section, the area of liquid is a disk partially cut off.

This assumes you know what the head dimensions area.

 

[chicopee]

You could do this problem using triple integration, however, you have to know the geometry of the tank heads. For a faster solution, I would draw the tank and water levels with Autocad from which volumes as cubic inches or some other units from which you can convert in gallons or liters.

 

[ercanduzgun206]

How about using a loadcell? Then you will not have to suffer with "height calculations". Just use simple rules of weighting.

 

[MJCronin]

A long time ago,when I was 19, I worked at a USNavy shipyard.

The vessels there had odd-shaped oil and water tanks that had to be calibrated.

The yard used a "calibration tank" in combination with blank-faced gauges and an accurate flow meter.

As the tanks were filled, we marked the partial and total gallonage on the blank gauge.

This was suitable for government purposes....perhaps you could do the same...

 

[zdas04]

I have found it difficult to accurately calibrate a level tank with semi-eliptical heads, incline it and the function is just too messy to be reasonable to program in a PLC. I would take MJCronin's advice and calibrate it with a flow meter (or a bucket).

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
The plural of anecdote is not "data"

 

[Mech85]

There is an online calculation for an inclined cylinder at the following LMNO Engineering webpage

http://www.lmnoeng.com/Volume/InclinedCyl.htm

There is also a "Tilted cylindrical tank volume" online calculation at the following webpage.

http://planetcalc.com/1442/

Hope this helps