Abstract:
The flocculation tank simulation team works on building a stable and reliable numerical model to simulate the flow inside the hydraulic flocculation tank, and providing well-studied guidelines for design, construction and operation of the flocculation tank.
Gravity powered hydraulic flocculators are used by AguaClara small-scale water treatment plants due to their low cost, inherent simplicity and robust operation. However, their inflexibility of energy input into the water relative to mechanical flocculators requires well studied design based on the understanding of the flow field and relevant performance parameters.
An appropriate CFD simulation can provide detailed numerical solutions for all the variables in the flow field, and by varying parameters such as tank geometry and flow conditions, we could obtain predictions of each of the flow variables and thus optimize the design towards lower cost and better performance.
Currently, our effort is focused on depicting an accurate energy dissipation map inside the flocculator, describing the size and the shape of the region where most of the energy is dissipated and the formation and collisions of flocs happen, thus providing basis for more efficient and economical design utilizing geometries that dissipate energy as uniformly as possible.
