An effective optimization of rainwater storage tanks for different roof materials in commercial buildings

• Main Author: A.Kumar, Ganesh
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: IRC 2016
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/17234/1/Dissertation_Ganesh_16238.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/17234/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Rainwater tanks for different roof materials require optimization of tank size, which is often neglected before the installation of these tanks. This project presents a case study of rainwater tank size optimization for 3 commercial buildings namely; office, hospital and hotel on 10 different roof materials where all buildings have a similar catchment area. The study was done based on the hourly rainfall data in Kuala Lumpur which was obtained from the Metrological Department of Malaysia. With the aim of developing an inclusive optimization tool for the performance analysis and sizing of rainwater tanks, a comprehensive spreadsheet that generates the water balance model for a whole year is developed using visual basic application that cross implies the hourly rainfall data, contributing catchment area, roof material, available storage volume, tank overflow and hourly water demand. In this case study, four rainwater tanks (10