Plater Settler Spacing - Coupling Analysis, Spring 2010

Zachary N. Romeo

Abstract:

Floc roll-up occurs in tube settlers when the torque caused by a differential in the velocity profile exceeds the force of gravity whereby particles fall back out into the sedimentation basin. The Plate Settler Spacing team hypothesized that holding the length to diameter ratio in tubes of different diameters constant at 20 would decrease the capture velocity's sensitivity to flow rate. Two diameters representing the extremes in lamella spacing (23.5 mm and 6.35 mm) were tested in this experiment. Each experiment was run with the tube settler at two different heights (1.3 cm and 2.7 cm) above the floc blanket-clear water interface.