Plumbing Detention Basin Volume Calculator

Route actual piecewise constant detention inflow/outflow inventory with empty initial basin and no negative storage, exposing unavailable outlet demand; not peak flow×duration or routing design approval.

Description

Detention storage routes chronological inflow and requested outflow from an empty basin.

Detention storage routes chronological inflow and requested outflow from an empty basin. Clipping storage at zero reveals unavailable outlet demand.^[1]

The returned values include Modeled peak detention m3, Modeled ending detention m3, Unavailable outlet demand m3. The How section below explains the calculation, input rules and interpretation.

When to use Plumbing Detention Basin Volume Calculator

Use Plumbing Detention Basin Volume Calculator when you need to evaluate the supplied records under the calculation and evidence rules below. No outlet hydraulic relation, initial storage or routing-design approval is supplied.

Prepare measured flows, pressures, temperatures or inventories with consistent units. For catalog tools, use independently verified capacities at the stated operating conditions and supply the explicit design demand.

How to use Plumbing Detention Basin Volume Calculator and understand its results

Prepare measured flows, pressures, temperatures or inventories with consistent units. For catalog tools, use independently verified capacities at the stated operating conditions and supply the explicit design demand.
Enter observedIntervalHours, observedInflowM3Hour, callerOutflowM3Hour using the field table and calculation rules, then run the tool.
Read modeledPeakDetentionM3, modeledEndingDetentionM3, unavailableOutletDemandM3. The explanation below defines the units, signs, ordering and any flags or placeholder values.
If the tool reports an input issue, correct the values and run it again. Apply the stated assumptions when interpreting a successfully returned result.

Input field	Meaning	Value type; see rules below	Requirement
observedIntervalHours	Observed interval hours	list of number	Required
observedInflowM3Hour	Observed inflow m3 hour	list of number	Required
callerOutflowM3Hour	Caller outflow m3 hour	list of number	Required

Enter aligned nonempty positive interval hours and nonnegative inflow/outflow m³/h. Return peak inventory, ending inventory and cumulative unavailable outlet demand in m³. The deficit is not basin overflow.

balance=stored+(inflow−outflow)×hours; unmet+=max(0,−balance); stored=max(0,balance)

Units, indexing, boundary conditions and exceptional cases are defined in the calculation rules above.

Output field	Meaning	Value type
modeledPeakDetentionM3	Modeled peak detention m3	number
modeledEndingDetentionM3	Modeled ending detention m3	number
unavailableOutletDemandM3	Unavailable outlet demand m3	number

json

{
  "input": {
    "observedIntervalHours": [
      1,
      2,
      1
    ],
    "observedInflowM3Hour": [
      10,
      2,
      0
    ],
    "callerOutflowM3Hour": [
      5,
      5,
      5
    ]
  },
  "output": {
    "modeledPeakDetentionM3": 5,
    "modeledEndingDetentionM3": 0,
    "unavailableOutletDemandM3": 6
  }
}

Limitations and assumptions

No outlet hydraulic relation, initial storage or routing-design approval is supplied.

Numeric inputs, where present, must be finite. Follow the calculation-specific rules for overflow, underflow and exceptional cases. Numeric lists are limited to 10,000 entries; string lists to 128 strings of at most 128 characters each. The rules above may impose smaller limits. Missing required fields, extra fields, wrong value types and violations of the calculation rules are input errors.

Alternative or Complementary methods

Use Plumbing Rainwater Harvesting Tank Size Calculator: Rainwater inventory depends on the chronological collection and withdrawal ledger. Starting empty exposes withdrawals that cannot be served. For a complementary task, use Plumbing Drywell Size Calculator: Drywell storage can credit justified infiltration during the event. Aggregate void fraction converts water storage to bulk volume.

References

Plumbing Detention Basin Volume Calculator — tool.io

Similar or alternative tools

Plumbing Rainwater Harvesting Tank Size Calculator
Rainwater inventory depends on the chronological collection and withdrawal ledger. Starting empty exposes withdrawals that cannot be served.
Plumbing Drywell Size Calculator
Drywell storage can credit justified infiltration during the event. Aggregate void fraction converts water storage to bulk volume.