Calculate barrel or drum capacity in liters, US and UK gallons and oil barrels from inside diameter and height, or look up standard barrel sizes.

Use internal dimensions. Fill means a percentage of volume, not liquid height.

Optional settings
Percent of volume, not of liquid height. Blank means 100%.

1 kg/L is water; crude oil โ‰ˆ 0.85. Blank omits mass.

Cylindrical Barrel Capacity Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the volume of a cylindrical barrel/drum (a right circular cylinder).

V = ฯ€ rยฒ h

Variables:

  • V is the volume (mยณ if r and h are in meters; ftยณ if r and h are in feet)
  • ฯ€ is a constant, approximately 3.14159
  • r is the internal radius of the barrel (meters or feet; use the same length unit as h)
  • h is the internal height/length of the barrel (meters or feet; use the same length unit as r)

To calculate capacity in common units, convert the volume:

  • 1 mยณ = 1000 L โ‰ˆ 264.172 US gal
  • 1 ftยณ โ‰ˆ 28.3168 L โ‰ˆ 7.48052 US gal

To calculate the cylindrical barrel volume, square the radius and multiply it by ฯ€, then multiply by the height/length. Convert the resulting cubic units (mยณ or ftยณ) to liters or US gallons if needed.

What is a Barrel Capacity?

A barrel capacity refers to the volume a barrel (or barrel-shaped container) can hold. In the oil industry, โ€œbarrelโ€ (bbl) is also a standardized unit: 1 bbl = 42 US gallons โ‰ˆ 158.987 liters. In other industries (such as beer and wine), the word โ€œbarrelโ€ can refer to different standard sizes or to the physical capacity of a specific container.

How to Calculate Barrel Capacity?

The following steps outline how to calculate the Barrel Capacity.

  1. First, determine the internal radius of the cylindrical barrel (r) in meters or feet.
  2. Next, determine the internal height/length of the cylindrical barrel (h) in the same length unit.
  3. Next, gather the formula from above: V = ฯ€ * rยฒ * h.
  4. Finally, calculate the volume V (in mยณ or ftยณ) and convert to liters or US gallons if desired.
  5. After inserting the variables and calculating the result, check your answer with the calculator above.

Example Problem : 

Use the following variables as an example problem to test your knowledge.

radius of the barrel (r) = 2 meters

height of the barrel (h) = 5 meters

Then V = ฯ€ ร— 2ยฒ ร— 5 = 20ฯ€ โ‰ˆ 62.8319 mยณ = 62,831.9 L โ‰ˆ 16,595.0 US gal.