13/4/2018 Compute time to Drain or Empty a Tank, Pond, or Reservoir.

Equation, software

Compute time to empty (or lower)

Time to Empty or Drain a water or other liquid. Also can solve
Tank, Pond, Reservoir for discharge coefficient, orifice
Containing Water or other diameter (or area), tank diameter (or
Liquid area), initial liquid depth, final liquid
depth.
Register to enable "Calculate" button. To:
LMNO
Select orifice geometry: Circular
Engineering
© 2014 LMNO Engineering, Select tank geometry: Circular
Research, and Software, Ltd. Select computation: Compute time home page
Not registered user Click to Calculate (more
Discharge Coefficient, C: 0.6 www.LMNOeng.com calculations)
Orifice Diameter, d: 0.5 inch
Orifice Area, a: Will be computed inch2
Discharge
Tank Diameter, D: 10 inch
from a tank
Tank Area, A: Will be computed inch2 (steady state)
Initial Depth, Hi: 4 ft
Final Depth, Hf: 1 ft Leak rate from
Time, t: Will be computed min
pipe crack
(liquids)
Units: cm=centimeter, ft=foot, hr=hour, m=meter, min=minute, sec=second.
Bernoulli
Tank (or pond or reservoir) is open to the atmosphere. The tank can be cylindrical or other calculator
cross-section but must have the same cross-section for its entire height. The orifice can be Orifice flow
circular or non-circular. If tank or orifice is non-circular, enter their area into our calculation. meter in pipe
Hi , Hf , and h are measured vertically from the centerline of the orifice.
(D<5cm)

Orifice flow
meter in pipe
(D>5cm)

Unit
Conversions
Calculator

Other
information:

Register

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
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13/4/2018 Compute time to Drain or Empty a Tank, Pond, or Reservoir. Equation, software

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 cross-sectional 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
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 non-circular. If non-circular, 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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13/4/2018 Compute time to Drain or Empty a Tank, Pond, or Reservoir. Equation, software

Type: Rounded Sharp-edged Short tube Borda

C: 0.98 0.61 0.8 0.51

The short tube value is valid for L ~ 2.5d. Borda is also known as "re-entrant" 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 cross-sectional area (m2).
A = Tank cross-sectional 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 square-edged 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

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. McGraw-Hill, Inc. 8ed.

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13/4/2018 Compute time to Drain or Empty a Tank, Pond, or Reservoir. Equation, software

Streeter, V. L., E. B. Wylie, and K. W. Bedford. 1998. Fluid Mechanics. McGraw-Hill, Inc.
9ed.

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reserved.

Please contact us for consulting or other questions.

LMNO Engineering, Research, and Software, Ltd.

7860 Angel Ridge Rd. Athens, Ohio 45701 USA Phone: (740) 592-1890
LMNO@LMNOeng.com http://www.LMNOeng.com

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