What is the buoyancy of a 55 gallon drum?

Answer 1

A 30 gallon drum, of course, holds 30 gallons. This means that in order to sink this barrel in water you would have to displace 30 gallons of water. (move the water out of the way to make room for this drum) Each gallon of fresh water weighs 8.34 pounds. So if you were to totally sink this sealed drum in fresh water it would take 250.2 pounds of weight to do so.

If you were to use these barrels for a pontoon boat or the like, I would suggest that you only use the barrels to a submersion level of 50%. This gives you some fudge-factor for weight distribution and walking around without having that "sinking" feeling.

In salt water, you have to know the composition of the salt water, or the ratio of salt to water. Roughly, salt water weighs 64 lbs/cu. ft., as opposed to fresh water, which is about 62.2 lbs/cu. ft. There are 7.48 gallons in a cubic foot. So a gallon of salt water weighs 8.556 lbs. This means that in order to sink the drum you would have to displace more weight because salt water is heavier than fresh water which in turn will make your drum more buoyant. It would take 256.7 pounds to totally sink your drum in salt water.

Keep in mind that a 30 gallon steel drum weighs between 30 and 40 pounds depending on the thickness of the steel when it was manufactured. This weight will need to be deducted from the total buoyancy. Of course plastic drums weigh less so do your math accordingly.

In fresh water minus the steel drum weight of 35 pounds:

100% sinking = 215.2 lbs per drum

75% sinking = 161.4 lbs per drum

50% sinking = 107.6 lbs per drum

In salt water minus the steel drum weight of 35 pounds:

100% sinking = 221.7 lbs per drum

75% sinking = 166.3 lbs per drum

50% sinking = 110.9 lbs per drum

Answer 2

Do you mean how much weight a 55-gallon drum can support when floating? It would be the weight of liquid that the drum displaces. Remember Archimedes running naked through the street shouting Eureka? He had been in the bath when it occurred to him that his body displaced an amount of water equal to its volume. That supposedly led to his solution of the problem of determining the gold content of the ruler's crown (the jeweler was suspected of alloying the gold with cheaper metal).

If you're talking about fresh water (maybe you're building a floating dock on your farm pond) the drum would displace 55 gallons of water. Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon, therefore the drum would support about 55x8, or 440 pounds, minus its own weight. Until it leaks.

Answer 3

30 US gallons is 4 (4.01042) cubic feet.

Answer 4

(30 gallons) x (231 cubic inches per gallon) / (1,728 cubic inches per cubic foot) = 4.01 cubic feet(rounded)

Answer 5

Typically about 40 pounds

Answer 6

1.56