The reason that the water tower must be placed above ground is due to the fact that the water pressure needed to pump the water around must be sufficient so the height provides the necessary water pressure.Each foot of height provides 0.43 PSI (pounds per square Inch) of pressure. A typical municipal water supply runs at between 50 and 100 PSI (major appliances require at least 20 to 30 PSI). The water tower must be tall enough to supply that level of pressure to all of the houses and businesses in the area of the tower. So water towers are typically located on high ground, and they are tall enough to provide the necessary pressure. In hilly regions, a tower can sometimes be replaced by a simple tank located on the highest hill in the area. A water tower's tank is normally quite large. A normal in-ground swimming pool in someone's backyard might hold something like 20,000 or 30,000 gallons (that's a lot of water!), and a typical water tower might hold 50 times that amount! Typically, a water tower's tank is sized to hold about a day's worth of water for the community served by the tower. If the pumps fail (for example, during a power failure), the water tower holds enough water to keep things flowing for about a day.
The objective of our project is to build a prototype model of a water tower. It must be able to withstand the weight of the object and great amount of force such as air around it.