Feature

Cover Story
Report

Solving Vessel Equations:

A Better Way Sasha Gurke
Knovel Corp.

Irregularly shaped vessels t Volume of vertical cylindrical shell:

Vc := π R2 • h c Shell diameter D := 50 in.

present challenges where R :=
D Shell height H := 150 in.
Liquid level h := 150 in.
for determining 2

Volume of
Volume of
liquid volumes. conical bottom:
2
elliptical top:
2
R π R
New tools can help Vb :=
π
3
•

b
•
3
hb Vt :=
3
•

t
2
•
ht 3t 2– ht2

H Bottom height b := 30 in. Top height t := 10 in.

C
alculating the volume of a liquid h
in a vessel of a complex shape Conditions:
is a common task for chemical hc := if (H+b≥h) (h>b) h t := if (h>(H+b))

<
engineers. However, there are h–b h–H–b
several difficulties associated with ac- else else
curately carrying out this calculation. 0 0
V := if (h≤b)
In my own experience as a chemi- Vb
cal engineer, I have become familiar b else h b := if (h<b)
with the complexities of calculations if h ≤ (H + b)
h
related to determining the volume of Vc + Vb else
a liquid contained in a vessel with an D else b
Vc + Vb + Vt
irregular shape.
Precise volume-determination equa- FIGURE 1. Calculating the volume of a liquid in an irregularly shaped vessel in-
tions are readily available for common volves combining equations for the various portions of the vessel, such as a cylinder
vessel shapes. But what if you are portion, a conical portion and an elliptical portion, in this case
using a vessel that is a vertical cyl-
inder with a hemispherical top and tion, the exact fluid volume must be At this point, two complexities arise.
bottom? Or, what if you are working known. One option is to measure the Engineers are forced to search through
with a horizontal elliptical vessel with volume using a meter pump, but this databases and manuals for the equa-
concave heads? No matter the type of method will not produce an accurate tions that are appropriate for the ir-
vessel you are working with, chemical result. The alternative is to verify the regular parts of the tank, and then cal-
engineers need to account for the liq- exact amount of liquid needed by cal- culate the volume using some kind of
uids within these irregular shapes to culating the volume of this irregularly calculation software. While many en-
calculate the volume properly. shaped vessel based on the liquid level. gineers favor Microsoft Excel as their
In this scenario, suppose that the calculation software of choice, keep in
Vessel-calculation challenges vessel in question is a vertical cylindri- mind that the program was not spe-
Let’s begin with an example scenario. cal vessel comprised of a conical bottom cifically designed for entering complex
Suppose a chemical engineer works and elliptical top. The elliptical portion equations. As a result, this process for
at a pharmaceutical facility that pro- of the vessel is partially filled with liq- calculating the volume of a particular
duces cough syrup. In that capacity, uid, while the cylindrical and conical vessel can be a time-consuming and
the engineer may have to prepare a portions are fully filled (Figure 1). What inefficient process. Engineers cannot
solution in a 1,000-gal vessel or tank should be the approach to calculating afford to waste time — they need reli-
with an irregular shape. To prepare the portion that is partially filled? able equations and quick calculations.
the proper concentration of cough To calculate the total volume, you In a similar scenario (depicted in
syrup, he or she may need to add 50 need to combine the different equa- Figure 1), the author and colleagues
pounds of an active pharmaceutical tions — one for each of these three first either found and verified, or de-
ingredient into sugar syrup. basic shapes of the vessel: the conical rived equations, in some instances
Before adding anything to this liquid bottom, the elliptical top and the verti- using integrals, for each shape in-
base to prepare the proper concentra- cal cylinder. volved. Glancing through a reliable en-
30 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JUNE 2013
 GENERAL Tafel equation

+ NEW UPLOAD DOWNLOAD

Tafel equation x Tafel Equation x Calc 1 x Calc 2 x Calc 3

The Tafel equation is an equation in electrochemical
+–
kinetics relating the rate of an electrochemical reaction to x÷ Arithmetic
the overpotential. The Tafel equation was first deduced i
experimentally and was later shown to have a theoretical ∆V = A × ln  
 i0 
Matrices
justification. The equation is named after Swiss chemist
Julius Tafel (1862-1918)
∆V is the overpotential, V ≤≥ Boolean

A is the so-called “Tafel slope”, V

f Functions
x Tafel diagram n vs log i i is the current denisity, A/m2 and Plot
Plot
2 i0 is the so called “exchange current density”
010
101 Programming

if while for line

η 1

αΩ Symbols

log i 0

0 –6 –5 –4
1•10 1•10 1•10 0.001
log i

contributed by Jane Chemist

references Publication One, Publication Two is Longer
citations Electrochemical Methods, Fundementals and Applications

Equation library Databases Codes and

FIGURE 2. A Web-based equation li- (corporate/Wiki) (materials/components) standards
brary can help in vessel calculations

gineering book, such as Perry’s Chem- Life engineering calculation tools (SMath-based)
ical Engineers’ Handbook, revealed
nothing useful for this problem. Optional PLM integration layer
We had better luck conducting In- via API
ternet-based research, but it was not
Initial design stages: Part/unit replacement
until poring through many search
sizing, conceptualizing, and
results that we came across the fol- process improvements
material selection
lowing article by Dan Jones — “Cal-
culating Tank Volume” (http://www.
webcalc.com.br/blog/Tank_Volume.
pdf). Also see (Chem. Eng., Sept. 2011,
Concept Operation and
pp 55–63).
development maintenance
Using the equations provided in
Jones’ article for practical calcula-
tions proved to be a problem in itself. High-level
requirements
First, the equations had to be as-
sembled in a sensible way to account Acceptance
for all the shapes containing liquid in Detailed
the vessel. In addition, depending on requirements
the level of the liquid you are working
with, there are different equations High-level Subystem
that have to be used. design verification
Another common frustration for
chemical engineers is that the data
Detailed Scale-up, inte-
found online must be validated as well. design gration and testing
Often with research conducted online,
the reliability and validity of the the in-
formation found is not clear or defined. Implementation
Checking the validity of the equations
that are found can be complicated. To
be sure that an equation is validated, Time
engineers may need to recalculate ev-
erything from scratch — which we did FIGURE 3. Cloud-based calculation tools can improve engineering workflow

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JUNE 2013 31

 C. Elliptical bottom:

Cover Story D
R

H
A. Conical top: B. Elliptical head: h

2
π R 2
V := •
2
•
h • 3 •H–h
3 H
D Note: := means
where R :=
2 “is defined to be”
H
D
D. Horizontal elliptical vessel:
h

h L
R

2
h 2 h H
V := π R H– h+
H 3H
π H • 2• H
Vb := •
h 3 • R–h h
D 6 R
where R :=
2 W
D
where R :=
2
a 2 2 2
h –b 2
π
V := •
L (h –b) • b – (h –b) + b • asin +b •
2
b b
FIGURE 4. (A–H) Various standard shapes that can be combined include
cylinders, cones, ellipsis and hemispherical. The diagrams and equations W H
where a := b := Note: := means
show some of the possible situations for volume measurement that engi- 2 2 “is defined to be”
neers might face

in this case — and of course, it ended systems unless additional program- of engineers and engineering students
up costing us even more time. ming is introduced. Third, we planned around the world.
Once we found and validated the to create a browser-based application, This tool consists of a powerful math
equations and vessel dimensions, the but the Internet version of Excel has engine core, user-friendly worksheet-
next step was to use a calculation tool exhibited performance issues and is based graphical user interface (GUI)
that is easy to integrate with the data. not highly rated by many users. and plug-ins — some of which are
We first turned to Microsoft Excel, Beyond Excel, there are engineer- open source software — that connect
probably the most-often-used tool in ing calculation tools available such the core with GUI. SMath has the fol-
many engineers’ toolboxes. For most as PTC’s (Needham, Mass.; www.ptc. lowing features:
calculations and analyses, an Excel com) Mathcad, which has automatic • The ability to handle numeric and
spreadsheet would suffice. Several unit conversion and can check equa- symbolic calculations
generations of engineers now have tions for mathematical errors. How- • Capabilities for 2-D and 3-D graphs
grown up using Excel — it’s a common, ever, a browser version of Mathcad is • Software versions designed for differ-
inexpensive software that is readily not available, and that limits its use- ent platforms and operating systems
available on most desktops and lap- fulness in cloud-based applications. • Partial support of Mathcad files
tops. In addition to its familiarity, it’s (*.xmcd)
relatively easy to input large amounts SMath • The ability to use mathematical units
of data into Excel. To calculate the volume of a liquid in a (either built-in or user defined)
However, in this case of calculating vessel of a complex shape, a task that • Multi-language worksheets
volume in an irregularly shaped ves- should take only minutes, we tested • Multi-language interface (28 lan-
sel, it was not. It became clear that it a tool that is readily available online guages)
would become an exceedingly time- and that could integrate our data. We • The capacity to use programming
consuming process just to enter the found an engineering desktop calcu- functions directly on the worksheet
equations and variables. lation tool that is both powerful and • Infrastructure to support third-
Other reasons why Excel was not the distributed free of charge — SMath party plug-ins
right calculation tool in this case is that Studio (http://en.smath.info/forum/ • An auto-complete feature with de-
programming is required with external yaf_topics12_Download-SMath-Stu- scription of all supported entries
data. Second, all calculations must be dio.aspx). • The ability to use the tool in collabo-
performed in a consistent system of SMath has a browser version called ration (via server)
units with conversion factors embed- SMath Live. While it is function- • Equation snippets
ded in equations. This is because Excel ally similar to the desktop version, it
does not automatically understand the needs further development. SMath, Improved volume calculations
units of measurement and does not developed specifically for engineering The tools chemical engineers have at
support calculations in different unit calculations, is now used by thousands their disposal are critical for main-
32 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JUNE 2013
 E. Hemispherical head: G. Horizontal cylinder:

D
h taining high levels of productivity. Ide-
R
D
ally, engineers should use tools that
are seamless, can save time, and avoid
h L
costly errors in the workflow. One way
to accomplish this is through cloud
computing, where software programs
2 R–h 2
V := L •
R • acos
R
– (R – h) •
2 • R • h –h and data that have traditionally re-
sided on company servers are now lo-
π • 2• D
Vb :=
6 h (
1.5 • D– h) where R := cated on a third party’s remote servers
2
and are accessed via the Web.
Cloud computing assures today’s en-
gineers quick and easy access to data
F. Hemispherical top: H. Horizontal hemicylindtrical top: from anywhere on a variety of devices.
It also allows engineers to easily share
data with their peers across the globe.
Fortunately, as technology continues
h
R to move into the cloud, engineers will
h
have more effective and reliable tools
to integrate data, such as equations
D
L
with calculation software, into their
design and workflow.
3
2 2 2 h 2 2 Currently in the early stages of de-
π D D V := L •
0.5 • π • R – R • acos – –h •
R –h
V :=
3
•

4
–
2
–h •
(D +h) R velopment, there is an engineering
cloud-based productivity tool (Figure
2) comprising of SMath Live inte-

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JUNE 2013 33
 Cover Story

grated with a searchable and brows- reasonable combination to calculate would enable users to find and select
able library of common engineering the volume of liquid in any partially equations for various shapes and then
equations, including those for par- filled vessel. Such a product will be assemble them like Lego blocks onto
tially filled shapes, that could help useful when integrated into engineer- an SMath Live worksheet. If you are
you calculate liquid volume as a func- ing workflow as an early-stage design working with any unusually shaped
tion of liquid level much faster than tool. The stages of a typical engineer- shells, bottoms or heads, you can build
before. A chemical engineer could ing workflow where this tool can be any vessel from them using smaller
use this cloud-based product to find integrated can be seen in Figure 3. pieces (Figure 4). You can continue
shapes and assemble them in any This type of Web-based product to build up to more complex shapes
and calculate the volume of the entire
shape or the volume of liquid in par-
tially filled shape. The same approach
could be used for calculating the vol-
Mark your ume of dry particulates, suspensions
and so on.
calendars for the Initial results are encouraging and
can be seen in Figure 1, which shows

single greatest
2
an example of a calculation for a verti-
cal cylindrical vessel with conical bot-
tom and elliptical top. This example
opportunity was assembled from calculations for
three basic shapes: cone bottom, el-
to grow your liptical top and vertical cylinder. Each
calculation contains limiting condi-

professional tions and validation routines, as well

as graphic representation of a shape.
These conditions and validation rou-
network and tines are easily adoptable for the ves-
sel shown in the example.

your mind! A prototype of this cloud-based

calculation tool is now underway. We
believe that the future of engineer-
Register April 2 and be entered into the first of many ing will be characterized by tools
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WEFTEC registration. Subsequent drawings
software and are available in the
will be made each month through

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20
WEFTDEreCgistration fees
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WEFTEC is the largest annual water of engineering productivity in the
and wastewater conference and E chemical industry. ■
exhibition in the world offering the REDUC chnical
to the te E Edited by Scott Jenkins
most comprehensive water-quality Access t NO CHARG
na —
education, training, and technology exhibitio register online
ou d Author
available. when y WEF an
m p lim ents of itors. Sasha Gurke is engineer-
co xhib
FTEC E ing technical fellow at Knovel
the WE Corp. (240 West 37th Street,
New York, NY 10018; Email:
sgurke@knovel.com; Phone:
Register early to increase your 617-803-8344). A chemist and
chemical engineer, Gurke has
chances of winning a FREE registration. more than 30 years of experi-
ence in the technical infor-
mation field. He co-founded
Visit www.weftec.org for details. Knovel in 1999 and as senior
vice president, he was actively
involved in product development and manage-
ment. Knovel was acquired by Elsevier in 2012,
and Gurke continues to play an important role
in new product development and strategy. Prior
to Knovel, he spent 15 years with Chemical Ab-
stracts Service/American Chemical Society in
product development and editorial positions.
86th Annual Water Environment Federation His industrial experience includes working as a
Technical Exhibition and Conference chemist at water treatment and paint manufac-
turing plants. Gurke holds a master’s degree in
McCormick Place South, Chicago, Illinois | October 5 – 9 chemical technology from St. Petersburg State
University of Technology and Design.
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34 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHE.COM JUNE 2013