Shahjajal University Of Science &

Technology
Assignment On:
DETAILING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF WATER STORAGE
TANKS.

Prepared by:
Md. Aminul Islam Khan.
Studying on:
Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Reg: 2011333038
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS AND DESIGN SESSIONAL- II

DETAILING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF WATER STORAGE

TANKS:
Introduction:
Water is the source of every creation. In day to day life one
cannot live without water. Therefore water needs to be stored for
daily use. Overhead water tank and underground water reservoir
is the most effective storing facilities used for domestic or even
industrial purpose.
Depending upon the location of the tank the tank can be named
as overhead on ground or underground. The tank can be made in
different shapes usually circular and rectangular shapes are
mostly used. The tanks can be made of RCC or even of steel. The
overhead tanks are usually elevated from the roof top through
column. In the other hand the underground tanks are rested on
the foundation.
Types of water tank:
Basing on the location of the tank in a building tanks can be
classified into 3 categories.
Underground Tanks
Tank resting on ground
Overhead tank
The most cases the underground and on ground tanks are circular
or rectangular in shape but the shape of the overhead tanks are
influenced by the aesthetical view of the surroundings and as well
as the design of the construction.
Steel tanks are also used specially in railway yards. Basing on the
shape the tanks can be circular, rectangular, square, polygonal
spherical and conical. A special type of tank named Intze tank is
used for storing large amount of water for an area. The overhead
tanks are supported by the column which acts as stages. This

column can be braced for increasing strength and as well as to

improve the aesthetic view.

Basis of Design:
One of the vital considerations for designing of tanks is that the
structure had adequate resistance to cracking and has adequate
strength for achieving this following assumption are made: Concrete is capable of resisting limited tensile stresses, the
full section of concrete including cover and reinforcement is
taken into account in this assumption.
To guard against structural failure, in strength calculation the
tensile strength of concrete is ignored.
Reduced values of permissible stress in steel are adopted in
steel are adopted in design.

Water tanks, what are they used for?

Water tanks usually have five main uses:
water for the garden - basically water to do plant watering
with, so conserving water and saving you needing to use
mains water;
water for fire fighting - very Australian, but an important
usage none the less;
water for drinking - rain water if stored in the correct tank is
quite suitable for drinking;

 water for washing - you can easily use this water for washing
your clothes in, and;
water for flushing the toilet - perfect for the job!
cover peaks in demand
smooth out variations in supply
provide water security in case of supply interruptions or
disaster
save your home from fire
meet legal requirements
improve water quality
provide thermal storage and freeze protection
enable a smaller pipe to serve for a distant source
How big does the water storage tank need to be?
Given the above usage cases; how do you 'size' your water
storage tank? The trick here is to have enough storage to 'carry
you through' the periods of no rain given sufficient prior rain. The
above positive/negative figure will give you a steer on how likely
being able to carry through will be, the more positive the easier
with adequate storage; the more negative the less worthwhile as
a goal this is (so don't bother getting such a big rain water tank).
The size you need also depends a lot on your rain fall patterns - if
you have well defined periods of the year that are 'wet' and 'dry'
then you should aim to collect as much as possible to carry across
into the dry periods. If its more random and equally distributed
across the year, then you just need to hold enough to 'flatten out'
the random distribution (i.e. a quarter of a years total rainwater
would be more than adequate). Your consumption of the water
also comes into play, if you consume it all before it can be saved

over the medium term, a large tank will spend most of its life
empty!
Although, from talking to many people on this issue, I always hear
the same story; namely 'I wish I had got a larger tank'. I think this
is more down to the changing weather patterns which have
condensed what was previously a months worth of rain into a day!

.
Water tank type?
Water tanks come on many different types, shapes, sizes
and colours; but can be grouped by final insulation location, as
follows:
Tanks buried in the ground
These are either plastic or concrete. Plastic water tanks will
be supplied as a whole unit that is 'dropped' into the hole and
filled over. Concrete water tanks require form work, pouring,
topping off and covering over. Plastic is in essence quick and
easy, concrete slower but more 'solid' - i.e. should last a lot
longer.
Where it is viable to bury your tank is determined mostly by your
budget and the ease with which the required hole can be made.
Also be aware of ground water on the site, if this pools in the hole,
you can end up with the empty tank literally 'floating' out of the
hole...
For ex:

Tanks under the house

Unless you are building a new house, your only real option here is what are
known as 'bladder water tanks' - in effect a big rubber bladder that rests in a special
frame in the void space under your house. Big plus is that you don't have to dig
holes or take up yard space with a water tank. Downside is that the capacity is
usually limited and you pay a premium.

Tanks above ground

This is where you will find by far the biggest variety. Everyone and his wife
is either making or selling some form of above ground water tank. The trick here is
to use the right 'type' of tank for the size and expected life.

Above ground small plastic water tanks

These go up to around 2000 litres and come in all manner of shapes: round,
square, cylinders, etc. They are mostly designed for use on the smaller plot where
finding somewhere to 'fit in' the tank can be hard. Often they end up mounted on a
small stand. Big downside with these is the lack of water storage and the fact UV
will degrade the plastic - so fixed life span (or keep them out the sun and/or paint
them).
Above ground big plastic water tanks
These usually go up to 15k litres and are shipped to site whole and ideally
'dropped' right onto a special sand based pad that becomes their home. The big plus
here is that its ready to go. The big negatives is that they don't do well in a bush
fire and the UV will degrade the plastic over time - so have fixed lifespan.
See Nylex Water Solutions for tanks of this type.

Above ground metal water tanks

Basically a big metal 'water butt' with some internal treatments to reduce
corrosion effects. These can go up to 150k litres typically. Cheap but the fact the
metal is performing two roles (structural and water lining) means they are
susceptible to failure due to movement - so they are often mounted on frames or
towers as part of the package. Also rusting puts a limited life on them.
Above ground concrete water tanks
Basically a big reinforced concrete box or cylinder. These go up to the
millions of litres with a cost to match to boot. No problems with rusting, although
be careful on settlement as it could crack the tank. Also no way to move it once its
in place, so be darn sure you wanted it there.
Above ground metal water tanks with plastic liner
Think of this as the 'bladder tank' going outdoors. The metal provides the
enclosing framework, whilst the liner does the job of keeping the water in. Big win
here is that settlement won't loose you water, and rusting doesn't make the tank
leak. Sizes up to millions of litres. See Pioneer Water Tanks for more details.
Another plus is that the liner is often 'food grade' - so good to drink from direct.
Is it all worth doing??
A whole load of factors come into this: some you can quantify, some down to a
lifestyle choice.. The simple factual information is best worked out over the
expected lifetime of the various solutions you have available. i.e. look at things
over 10 years at least. Most good water tanks should still be functioning well after
10 years with a little bit of TLC. So work out the amount of water 'saved' by the
water tank compared to say mains water, i.e. the cost of the tank water if you had it
from the mains. Subtract from that the actual full cost of the water tank and you get
the nominal cost now amount (no depreciation or price adjustments) you will save
(positive) or loose (negative) from utilizing a water tank over 10 years..
Then to that figure add on the cost of replacing any items you will 'loose' or be
unable to support without the mostly guaranteed supply of the water tank. i.e. think
expensive none drought tolerant plants (and veggies). Difficult to work out
precisely but for some people this could be a rather expensive replacement cost.
Another factor to consider, that is very Australian, is that in bush fire prone areas
having a large water tank with the right attachments can help the fire services in
fighting fires - so reducing the potential risk of fire damage to your property by

proxy... In theory your insurance should cover you, but I'd opt for doing without
the trouble in the first instance!

Where to put the water tank?

By now you should have an ideal figure for the amount of water you need to store,
so next you need to think about where to put it... Remember 1000 litres takes up 1
cubic meter (no getting away from that, its physics!). Also remember most tanks
come in height multiples of around a meter (plus 50 cms for the top). Also councils
have weird and wonderful restrictions about where the tank can go (think boundary
and overshadowing). Plus if its over 10k litre it will usually have to be covered
under some form of planning permission.. So think about this hard. Also you can
have more than one tank easily enough and that might be cheaper than digging out
a massive hole. Also remember when you take the water 'out' of the tank you want
its water pressure to be of use to you if at all possible, i.e. put a tank high on your
plot under the 'highest' roof, so you can water your garden using just gravity and no
pump!
What about the run-off?
No matter which water tank you decide to put in - as soon as it fills up the excess
water will come out of an 'overflow' pipe. Now for a small tank and feed-in this is
not that much of an issue; but if your tank is feeding off more than about 200m2 of
roof area you could end up with quite a volume of water flowing out of that
overflow.
Such a volume of water can result in significant localized flooding and erosion on
its own, so it pays to 'manage' this water up front using the following techniques.
Discharge the water into a 'swale' system - this is a set of humps and curves made
in a gentle slope to slow the water down and encourage it to settle into the soil
instead of running straight off your land.
Install an overflow 'weir' basically a normal flow of overflow water just goes into
the swale system, but a very high amount goes over the weir and then into a stormwater pipe to carry it away into the storm-water system directly rather than
overland. This weir is easy to make with some stone and pipe fittings.
Get another tank... Seriously, if you have the land space and can 'chain' together
tanks in this way you will maximize the amount of water you capture. For instance

on our plot we have a tank on the high side whose overflow is plumbed into the
rainwater capture for the lower tank which feeds off the house roof. The overflow
of that then goes off across the lower paddock and around the chicken coup to the
creek.

Thank you