Storage Facilities

Storage facilities are used to accommodate the fluctuations in the water demand depending
on time, to maintain the service pressure required, and provide storage for emergency situations.
Most common type of storage facilities is the elevated storage tank. A typical elevated storage tank
and its parts is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Elevated Storage Tanks

The minimum acceptable height of water in an elevated storage tank is determined by

computing the minimum acceptable piezometric head in the service area and then adding to that
figure an estimate of the head losses between the critical service location and the location of the
elevated service tank, under the condition of average daily demand. The maximum height of water in
the elevated tank is then determined by adding the minimum acceptable piezometric head to the
head loss between the tank location and the critical service location under the condition of maximum
hourly demand. The difference between the calculated minimum and maximum heights of water in
the elevated storage tank is then specified as the normal operating range within the tank.

Example
A service reservoir is to be designed for a water-supply system serving 250000 people with
an average demand of 6000 L/d/capita, and a needed fire flow of 37000 L/min. Estimate the required
volume of service storage.
Solution
The required storage is the sum of three components: (1) volume to supply the demand in
the excess of the maximum daily demand, (2) fire storage, and (3) emergency storage.
The volume to supply the peak demand can be taken as 25% of the maximum daily demand
volume. Taking the maximum daily demand factor as 1.8 (Table 3), then the maximum daily flowrate
is given by

𝑄𝑚 = 1.8 × 600 × 250000 = 2.7 × 108 𝐿/𝑑 = 2.7 × 105 𝑚3 /𝑑

The storage volume to supply the peak demand is therefore given by

𝑉𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 = 0.25 × (2.7 × 105 ) = 67500 𝑚3

According to Table 7, the 37000 L/min (=0.62 m3/s) fire flow must be maintained for at least
9 hours. The volume to supply the fire demand is therefore given by
𝑉𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒 = 0.62 × 9 × 3600 = 20100 𝑚3

The emergency storage can be taken as the average daily demand, in which case

𝑉𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑟 = 250000 × 600 = 150 × 106 𝐿 = 150000 𝑚3

The required volume of the service reservoir is therefore given by
𝑉 = 𝑉𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘 +𝑉𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒 + 𝑉𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑟

𝑉 = 67500 + 20100 + 150000 = 237600 𝑚3

The service reservoir should be designed to store 238000 m3 of water.

Example
A water-supply system is to be designed in an area where the minimum allowable pressure
in the distribution system is 300 kPa. A hydraulic analysis of the distribution network under average
daily demand conditions indicates that the head loss between the low-pressure service location,
which has a pipeline elevation of 5.40 m, and the location of the elevated storage tank is 10 m. Under
maximum hourly demand conditions, the head loss between the low-pressure service location and
the elevated storage tank is 12 m. determine the normal operating range for the water stored in the
elevated tank.

Solution
Under average demand conditions, the elevation 𝑧𝑜 of the hydraulic grade line (HGL) at the
reservoir location is given by
𝑝𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑧𝑜 = + 𝑧𝑚𝑖𝑛 + ℎ𝐿
𝛾
where 𝑝𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 300 kPa, 𝛾 = 9.79 kN/m3, 𝑧𝑚𝑖𝑛 = 5.4 m, and ℎ𝐿 = 10 m, which yields
 300
𝑧𝑜 = + 5.4 + 10 = 46.0 𝑚
9.79
Under maximum hourly demand conditions, the elevation 𝑧1 = of the HGL at the service
reservoir is given by
300
𝑧1 = + 5.4 + 12 = 48.0 𝑚
9.79
Therefore, the operating range in the storage tank should be between elevations 46.0 m and
48.0 m.