How To Calculate The Water Tank Load On Roof Slab

Raja Junaid Iqbal October 19, 2021 QA/QC Engineering

How To Calculate The Water Tank Load On Roof Slab

Water is essential for everybody life, we need water for many purpose such as drinking, washing, cleaning, cooking, and growing food and thus making it our most precious resource for survival. Water is essential for life and it is storage is need of time. Generally we store water in tank made of plastic, Steel or concrete which is round, rectangular or square-shaped. In most homes, generally it is install on home rooftop for your residential house, Hotels, hospitals, School, business location and factories.

If you install your water tank on roof slab, there is load acting on slab and water tank exerts a load over the roof slab. How much load exerts by water tank on roof slab and how much load your RCC roof slab resist. It all depends on span of the slab while generally RCC roof slab is designed for 2kN/m2 live load. In this article we briefly discuss about how to calculate water tank load on roof slab and load of 300, 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000 and 5000 liter water tank.

Generally Unit Weight or density of water is about 10kN/m3. Water load is 1000kg/m2 per meter height of water tank. Thus load of water tank depending on its surface area and their height. More height of water tank increases the load and in reverse less height of water tank decrease the load. Less surface area of water tank will gradually increases the load and in reverse large surface area of water tank decrease the load.

To calculate water tank load on roof slab you just need to multiply height of water tank in 10 kN/ m2 or 1000 kg/m2, which is load of water tank per meter height & 1.1m height of 1000 liter of water tank exerts 1100 kg/m2 load over roof slab.

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How to calculate water tank load on roof slab

To figure out water tank load on roof slab you follow the following steps:-

1) measure the diameter of circular water tank, suppose diameter of 1000 liter (1m3) of water tank is about 1.1 meter (1100mm, or 110cm)

2) calculate the surface area of circular water tank by the formula πD^2/4, such as (3.14 × 1.1 × 1.1) ÷ 4 = 0.95 square meter

3) find height of water tank by dividing 1 cubic meter of water by surface area of water tank such as 1m3 ÷ 0.95m2 = 1.05m

4) to determine the load of water tank on roof slab, multiply the Unit Weight of water (density of water) by height of water tank such as 10kN/m3 × 1.05m = 10.5 kN/m2.

Thus a 1.05 meter height of 1000 liter (1m3) of water tank exerts a load intensity of 10.5 kN/m2 or 1050 kg/m2 over the roof slab.

Load of 1000 liter water tank:-

water load is about 1000 kg/m2 per meter height of water tank, if surface area of water tank is 0.95m2 then the height of synthetic circular water tank of 1000 liter (1m3) capacity is about 1.10 meter. Thus a 1.10 meter height of 1000 liter of water tank exerts a load intensity of 1100 kg/m2 (or 11kN/m2) over the roof slab. Thus load of 1000 liter water tank is about 1100 kg/m2 (or 11kN/m2).

1500 liter water tank load:-

water load is about 1000 kg/m2 per meter height of water tank, if surface area of water tank is 1.23m2 then the height of synthetic circular water tank of 1500 liter (1.5m3) capacity is about 1.22 meter. Thus a 1.22 meter height of 1500 liter of water tank exerts a load intensity of 1220 kg/m2 (or 12.2kN/m2) over the roof slab. Thus load of 1500 liter water tank is about 1220 kg/m2 (or 12.2kN/m2).

2000 liter water tank load:-

water load is about 1000 kg/m2 per meter height of water tank, if surface area of water tank is 1.47m2 then the height of synthetic circular water tank of 2000 liter (2m3) capacity is about 1.36 meter. Thus a 1.36 meter height of 2000 liter of water tank exerts a load intensity of 1360 kg/m2 (or 13.6kN/m2) over the roof slab. Thus load of 2000 liter water tank is about 1360 kg/m2 (or 13.6kN/m2).

3000 liter water tank load:-

water load is about 1000 kg/m2 per meter height of water tank, if surface area of water tank is 1.69m2 then the height of synthetic circular water tank of 3000 liter (3m3) capacity is about 1.78 meter. Thus a 1.78 meter height of 3000 liter of water tank exerts a load intensity of 1780 kg/m2 (or 17.8kN/m2) over the roof slab. Thus load of 3000 liter water tank is about 1780 kg/m2 (or 17.8kN/m2).

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5000 liter water tank load:-

water load is about 1000 kg/m2 per meter height of water tank, if surface area of water tank is 2.56m2 then the height of synthetic circular water tank of 5000 liter (5m3) capacity is about 1.95 meter. Thus a 1.95 meter height of 5000 liter of water tank exerts a load intensity of 1950 kg/m2 (or 19.5kN/m2) over the roof slab. Thus load of 5000 liter water tank is about 1950 kg/m2 (or 19.5kN/m2).

500 liter water tank load:–

water load is about 1000 kg/m2 per meter height of water tank, if surface area of water tank is 0.607m2 then the height of synthetic circular water tank of 500 liter (0.5m3) capacity is about 0.82 meter. Thus a 0.82 meter height of 500 liter of water tank exerts a load intensity of 820 kg/m2 (or 8.2kN/m2) over the roof slab. Thus load of 500 liter water tank is about 820 kg/m2 (or 8.2kN/m2).

750 liter water tank load:–

water load is about 1000 kg/m2 per meter height of water tank, if surface area of water tank is 0.816m2 then the height of synthetic circular water tank of 750 liter (0.75m3) capacity is about 0.92 meter. Thus a 0.92 meter height of 750 liter of water tank exerts a load intensity of 920 kg/m2 (or 9.2kN/m2) over the roof slab. Thus load of 750 liter water tank is about 920 kg/m2 (or 9.2kN/m2).

300 liter water tank load:-

water load is about 1000 kg/m2 per meter height of water tank, if surface area of water tank is 0.34m2 then the height of synthetic circular water tank of 300 liter (0.3m3) capacity is about 0.88 meter. Thus a 0.88 meter height of 300 liter of water tank exerts a load intensity of 880 kg/m2 (or 8.8kN/m2) over the roof slab. Thus load of 300 liter water tank is about 880 kg/m2 (or 8.8kN/m2).