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Tank & vessel calculator

Work out diameter and height from a required capacity, or capacity from dimensions you already have. Handles flat, dished and conical ends, and shows every dimension in metres and feet.

How this works →

Start from a vessel type

Solve for

Size from throughput and residence time

For a deodoriser or any residence-time vessel, working volume is simply throughput × residence time. Both are process decisions — enter the values your design calls for and this fills in the required capacity.

Result

Dimensions

Diameter
11 ft 5 in (3.488 m)
Diameter (mm)
3,488 mm
Straight side
17 ft 2 in (5.232 m)
Overall height
17 ft 2 in (5.232 m)
L/D ratio
1.50
Circumference
35 ft 11 in (10.958 m)

Capacity

Total volume
50 m³
Litres
50,000
US gallons
13,209
Imperial gallons
10,998
Barrels (42 US gal)
314.491

Breakdown

Shell volume
50 m³
Top head volume
0 m³
Bottom head volume
0 m³
Shell surface area
57.34 m² (617.2 ft²)
Total surface area
76.45 m² (822.9 ft²)
Diameter in feet
11.44 ft

Shell plate take-off

What the straight side comes to in stock plate — a ring is one horizontal band, rolled to the curve and welded into a circle, and the sheet’s width sets its height.

RingSheet sizeRing heightSheets
13000 × 1500 mm4 ft 11 in4
22500 × 1250 mm4 ft 1 in5
32500 × 1250 mm4 ft 1 in5
42500 × 1250 mm4 ft 1 in5
Total4 rings17 ft 3 in19

The rings come to 17 ft 3 in, so 18 mm is trimmed off the top ring. Shell only: a dished or conical head is formed from a blank rather than wrapped from stock plate, so it is not counted in sheets. For weight, wastage and a rate, take the same dimensions to the MS & SS plate calculator.

Geometric volume to the top of the shell. Deduct for freeboard, internals, trays and heating coils to get working capacity.

Next step

Once the size is settled, the plate & sheet calculator works out how many MS or SS sheets the shell and ends will consume, and what it weighs.

Questions

How is tank volume calculated?
The cylindrical shell is π/4 × D² × H. Any dished or conical heads add their own volume on top: an ellipsoidal 2:1 head is exactly πD³/24, a hemispherical head is πD³/12, and a cone is πD²h/12. Those are exact results, not estimates.
How do you find the diameter from a required capacity?
With flat ends it is a direct rearrangement. Once dished heads are involved, total volume becomes cubic in the diameter, so there is no clean algebraic inverse — the calculator solves it numerically by bisection, which is reliable because volume always increases with diameter.
Is the torispherical head volume exact?
No, and it is labelled as approximate in the tool. A flanged-and-dished head's volume depends on its crown and knuckle radii, so the widely used 0.0847 × D³ figure for an ASME F&D head is an estimate. For anything load-bearing, take the volume from your head supplier's drawing.
How do I size a deodoriser from throughput?
Working volume is throughput multiplied by residence time — the calculator has an input for exactly this. Both figures are process design decisions that depend on your oil, operating temperature, vacuum and stripping steam rate, so they have to come from your process data rather than a geometric formula.
Does the result include freeboard?
No. The figure is the geometric volume up to the top of the shell. Subtract freeboard, and the space taken by trays, coils, agitators and other internals, to get usable working capacity.
Can I enter capacity in tonnes or maunds?
Enter it in tonnes and give the product density — for edible oils that is usually 900 to 930 kg/m³ at ambient temperature. To work from maunds, convert first on the unit converter, and check which maund you mean: Pakistan standardised it at 40 kg, while India's metric definition, also used in Bangladesh and Nepal, is 37.3242 kg. On a large tank that 7% gap is a serious error.