Sarah Bolander, Skyler Erickson, Subhani Katugampala, Mary Millard, Savannah Wing
Abstract
The ultimate goal of the EStaRS (Enclosed Stacked Rapid Sand) Filter team was to develop an appropriate configuration for the stacked rapid sand filter system that could be implemented to treat groundwater in India. The stacked rapid sand filter is an excellent choice for treating water near the city of Ranchi, India, as the primary water source there is groundwater. The low turbidity of groundwater means that the full AguaClara treatment process is not required and filtration with dosing will suffice. After testing the current apparatus, the goal was to improve the design so that modular EStaRS filters can be run in parallel efficiently and sand bed fluidization can be detected. This team set up a system to allow for extended backwash times, proposed a weir design to run multiple EStaRS Filters in parallel, and set up a manometer system to analyze bed fluidization during backwash.
