Is it possible to determine the volume of a cylindrical tank in the horizontal position using Lookout objects?

[JPhillips]

Rather than doing this calculation in my plc's programming language, I was wondering if anyone has done this or might have an idea on how to do it in Lookout. I am using an ultrasonic level sensor to get the tank level, I just am not sure on how to calculate theta (how full the tank is in degrees) using Lookout.

Any response would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[tommy_scharmann]

Yes, you can do this in Lookout. This is a little hard to explain without pictures. Attached you will find an Excel spreadsheet, with a diagram, that does these calculations. It has pop-up comments that provide the formulas. Once you understand how to calculate volume from the height, you can do this all with Expression objects in Lookout. The input variable would be the height of the liquid.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,
Tommy Scharmann

[AaronGesicki]

Fascinating. I follow this forum just for answers like this, which help me learn solutions to future problems.
Aaron Gesicki
Sparta, WI

[JPhillips]

Thanks!!

This is a HUGE help!

Jason Phillips

[Khalid]

This is awesome! Thanks for taking the time to explain in such detail.

Khalid

[reandy]

Hi, I should have looked in the forums first to find this answer, would have saved me some work. I'm using lookout, and needed to find gallons in a horizontal tank, I came up with the following formula...Then I decided to come to the forums to post the example, and I found this thread already started.

(LenghFeet*(((DiaFeet/2)^2*(acos(((DiaFeet/2)-(LevelInches/12))/(DiaFeet/2))))-(sqrt(2*((DiaFeet/2)*(LevelInches/12))-(LevelInches/12)^2)*((DiaFeet/2)-(LevelInches/12)))))*7.48

Where in my example lookout file:
LenghFeet=Pot used to enter the length of the tank in Feet (would be hard coded in production program)
DiaFeet=Pot used to enter the diameter of the tank in Feet (would be hard coded in production program)
LevelInches=Pot used to enter the height of the liquid in the tank in Inches (would be from the field instrument measuring this in inches)
7.48=gallons in a cubic foot

The attached example is the source (.lks) file, so you will need to change the extension from .txt to .lks and then compile it.

I hope this example is useful.
Rich Anderson
Green Bay, WI