Influence of hydraulic and hydrodynamic parameters characteristic of flow in helical tubular flocculators on estimating flocculation efficiency
摘要
Equations for estimating Turbidity Removal Efficiency in Helical Tubular Flocculators have been developed to advance the understanding of the relationship between hydrodynamics and flocculation efficiency and to contribute to the establishment of procedures for the rational design of these units. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of hydraulic and hydrodynamic parameters characteristic of flow in Helical Tubular Flocculators on estimating flocculation efficiency, with particular attention to the inflection behavior of the curve of said efficiency with the increase in the flocculator length. For this purpose, 84 Helical Tubular Flocculators configurations were evaluated by means of Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis, considering laminar and turbulent regimes. To discuss the effect of each parameter on estimating Turbidity Removal Efficiency and, particularly, on the inflection behavior of the Turbidity Removal Efficiency curve as a function of the flocculator length, parametric equations were constructed, combining, one by one, the geometric, hydraulic, and hydrodynamic parameters. As a result, it was found that, among the parameters studied, the Camp Number is the main factor responsible for capturing and representing the inflection behavior of the Turbidity Removal Efficiency curve. Additionally, as a consequence of the analysis, one proposed an estimating equation that is more parsimonious than the best-performing equations available, and where all of its parameters can be obtained through physical modeling, with tendency to better capture one of the most relevant and interesting pieces of information for the process—which is the point of maximum efficiency as a function of the flocculator length.