Compute time to Drain or Empty a Tank, Pond, or Reservoir. Equation, s...

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Time to Empty or Drain a

Tank, Pond, Reservoir
Containing Water or other
Liquid

http://www.lmnoeng.com/Tank/TankTime.php

Compute time to empty (or lower)

water or other liquid. Also can solve for
discharge coefficient, orifice diameter
(or area), tank diameter (or area),
initial liquid depth, final liquid depth.

Register to enable "Calculate" button.

Tank time calculation is mobiledevicefriendly as of August 26, 2014

Select tank geometry:

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home page

Select orifice geometry:

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Discharge Coefficient, C:

http://www.LMNOeng.com

Orifice Diameter, d:
Orifice Area, a: Will be computed
Tank Diameter, D:
Tank Area, A: Will be computed
Initial Depth, Hi:
Final Depth, Hf:
Time, t: Will be computed
Units: cm=centimeter, ft=foot, hr=hour, m=meter, min=minute, sec=second.
Tank (or pond or reservoir) is open to the atmosphere. The tank can be cylindrical or other
crosssection but must have the same crosssection for its entire height. The orifice can be
circular or noncircular. If tank or orifice is noncircular, enter their area into our
calculation. Hi , Hf , and h are measured vertically from the centerline of the orifice.

Discharge
from a tank
(steady state)
Bernoulli
calculator
Orifice flow
meter in pipe
(D<5cm)
Orifice flow
meter in pipe
(D>5cm)
Unit
Conversions
Calculator

Other
information:
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http://www.lmnoeng.com/Tank/TankTime.php

Introduction
Water (or other liquid) draining out of a tank, reservoir, or pond is a common
situation. Our calculation allows you to compute the time needed to lower the water from
one depth to a lower depth or to empty the tank. Alternatively, the user can input a time
and choose another variable to be computed  orifice coefficient, orifice diameter or
orifice area, tank diameter or tank area, initial liquid depth, or final liquid depth.
Equations
If a tank and orifice are both at atmospheric pressure and the liquid is above the top of the
orifice, the discharge (flow rate) out of the orifice is (Streeter et al., 1998, p. 467;
Daugherty et al., 1985, p. 413):

Note: The above equation is valid if both the tank and orifice are at the same pressure, even
if the pressure is not atmospheric
For a tank with a constant crosssectional geometry A in the plan view (i.e. as you look
down on it), substitute:

Integrate h from Hi to Hf and integrate t from 0 to t, then solve for time t, which is the time

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http://www.lmnoeng.com/Tank/TankTime.php

required for the liquid to fall from Hi to Hf:

If the tank is circular in plan view (i.e. looking down on it):

If the orifice is circular:

Our calculation allows you to solve for any of the variables: C, d, a, D, A, Hi, Hf , or t. The
orifice and tank can be either circular or noncircular. If noncircular, then the diameter
dimension is not used in the calculation.
Validity
If h drops below the top of the orifice (for instance if Hf is below the top of the orifice), the
method will give shorter emptying times than in reality. The program assumes that liquid
is flowing out through the entire orifice area. However, when the liquid drops below the
top of the orifice, flow is out of an area less than the full orifice area.
The tank and orifice discharge are assumed to be at the same pressure.
The tank is assumed to be of sufficiently larger area than the orifice so that friction effects
from the tank wall are negligible; that is, A>10a as a rule of thumb suggested by LMNO
Engineering.
Orifice Discharge Coefficient
Our steady state discharge from a tank page lists discharge coefficients for some orifice
shapes (for water and similar liquids) from Dally et al. (1993), and they are repeated here.
Similar values are shown in Daugherty et al. (1985, p. 415).

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Type: Rounded
C:

0.98

Sharpedged

Short tube

0.61

0.8

http://www.lmnoeng.com/Tank/TankTime.php

Borda
0.51

The short tube value is valid for L ~ 2.5d. Borda is also known as "reentrant" since it juts
into the tank.
Variables
The units shown for the variables are SI (International System of Units); however, the
equations above are valid for any consistent set of units. Our calculation allows a variety of
units; all unit conversions are accomplished internally.

a = Orifice crosssectional area (m2).

A = Tank crosssectional area (m2).
C = Orifice discharge coefficient 0 < C < 1.0. C depends on the orifice geometry and in
some cases the type of liquid.

d = Orifice diameter (m).

D = Tank diameter (looking down on it), (m).
g = Acceleration due to gravity, 9.8066 m/s2.
h = Vertical distance from centerline of orifice to liquid surface (m).
Hf = Final vertical distance from centerline of orifice to liquid surface (m).
Hi = Initial vertical distance from centerline of orifice to liquid surface (m).
Q = Discharge (flowrate) at any depth, h (m3/s).
t = Time for liquid in tank to change from a depth of Hi to a depth of Hf (seconds).
Error Messages given by calculation

"Need C > 0", "Need d > 0", "Need a > 0", "Need D > 0", "Need A > 0", "Need Hi > 0", "Need Hf
0", "Need Time > 0". These are initial checks. Discharge coefficient, orifice diameter (if
circular), orifice area, tank diameter (if circular), initial liquid depth, and final liquid
depth must be positive numbers.

"Need Hi > Hf". Initial depth must be larger than final depth.
"Best if A 10a". To ensure that tank friction is negligible, should have tank area much
larger than orifice area.

"Need 0 < C 1". Discharge coefficient must be greater than 0.0 and less than or equal to
1.0. Typical value is 0.6 for water flowing through squareedged orifice.

"Infeasible input". This message can occur if the final depth is being computed and Hi0.5 <
[t a C (g/2)0.5] / A

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http://www.lmnoeng.com/Tank/TankTime.php

References
Dally, J. W., W. F. Riley, and K. G. McConnell. 1993. Instrumentation for Engineering
Measurements. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2ed.
Daugherty, R. L., J. B. Franzini, and E. J. Finnemore. 1985. Fluid Mechanics with
Engineering Applications. McGrawHill, Inc. 8ed.
Streeter, V. L., E. B. Wylie, and K. W. Bedford. 1998. Fluid Mechanics. McGrawHill, Inc.
9ed.

2010-2014 LMNO Engineering, Research, and Software, Ltd. All rights

reserved.
Please contact us for consulting or other questions.
LMNO Engineering, Research, and Software, Ltd.
7860 Angel Ridge Rd. Athens, Ohio 45701 USA Phone and fax: (740) 5921890
LMNO@LMNOeng.com http://www.LMNOeng.com

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