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Number of team members needed: 5

Additional for Spring spring 2009: 3

Important team member skills:

CEE 3310 , or equivalent Fluid Dynamics course
CEE 4540 co or prerequisite
Student must be comfortable with coding

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• Create an organized method of handling multiple designs so that we don�t don't have the confusion of not knowing what design assumptions correspond to the different facilities that are being designed. Put the final design files for a facility on the wiki. Perhaps zip all the files to make a package that can easily be downloaded for review. Include ALL of the associated design files so that as design algorithms evolve it will still be possible to see the designs of each facility.
• Document the designs of the existing facilities (as built) in a table format and when possible include the zipped design files.
• Integrate lessons learned during the construction of the Cuatro Comunidades plant into the design and AutoCAD code.
• Add construction details including ledge that supports the plate settlers, inlet manifold plates, sludge drain channel, sludge drain plates, sedimentation tank inlet drop tubes, inlet channel port covers, etc. Attempt to draw the inlet drop tubes using the same pieces that will be used to construct the drop tubes.
• Create several series of plant designs to illustrate how the designs vary as a function of flow rate and design assumptions. Post these designs on the wiki.
• Flocculation program: include the Energy Dissipation Approach and to draw the baffles correctly for different numbers of flocculator channels.
• Sedimentation inlet manifold program
  • Allow user to specify width of the plates used to create the manifold. Use the width of the plates to set the port spacing. Eliminate the dimensionless ratio of the port width to the port spacing.
  • Check the manifold design algorithm assumptions. Specifically the method of incorporating the pressure recovery term may be incorrect. It might be beneficial to create a full model of the flow out of each port and compare those results with the analytical model for the ratio of the flow between max and min flow ports.
  • Correct arbitrary assumptions - 1/3 velocity factor, Square ports, Distance between ports.
  • Check for reasonable values
• Update the Variable Naming Guide
• Check AutoCAD dimensions
  • H.SedRectangle > B.Port Check to be added to Sedimentation Slopes Program
• Add pictures to programs pages
• Group related objects in AutoCAD to make manipulation of the drawings easier (plate settlers, baffles, inlet manifold plates, etc.)

  Research

  Pilot Plant Spring 2009 Challenges

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It would be helpful to have a "handy" person on the team that feels comfortable using power tools.

Challenges

Floc Tank

• Team members should test consecutive Use process controller to increment through a series of alum doses in order to familiarize themselves with the tank and floc formationfind the optimal alum dose for a particular raw water turbidity
• Learn to identify symptoms of over and under dosing of alum
• Compare uniform and non-uniform baffle configuration results from the flocculation tank with both low and high incoming raw water turbidity

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FReTA

• Alter Lower the tube flocculat set-up to minimize air trapped from joints and it has a more permanent location at the plant.flocculator so that water from the flocculator tank will flow through the tube flocculator by gravity
• Set up FReTA to be used with the tube flocculator
• Use FReTA to compare settling velocities at different points in the tube flocculator and also based on samples taken from the CUWFP flocculator
• Compare raw water sedimentation rates and residual turbidity readings from the Pilot Plant FReTA with the laboratory results

Sed Tank

• flocculator, the laboratory tube flocculator, the pilot plant tube flocculator, and the CUWFP flocculator
• Assess which flocculator will produce the lowest turbidity settled water

Sed Tank (possibly put this project on hold due to the dependency on the consistent performance of the pilot plant flocculator)

• How long does it take to form a sludge blanket at different raw water turbidities?
• What is the optimal upflow velocity through the floc blanket? Compare with the results of laboratory studies by Matt Hurst. For these studies keep the tube settler capture velocity at 10 m/day.
• Discover how much time it takes to form a sludge blanket.
• Can a sludge blanket form if the lamella are present? Can the lamella be designed differently so that this is possible?
• What is the best way to drain a sed tank so as to cause the least amount of disturbance and water waste. How often would this need to occur?
• What else could be done to optimize the sed tanks?
• Are the two sed tanks equal? Is the tank turbidity comparable? Are flocs remaining equally intact from the flocculator to the tanks?

Plate Settler Spacing Spring 2009 Challenges

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• Jet dissipation
  1. Run experiments using a mesh with 1 cm diameter holes to determine if the mesh causes the floc blanket to form more rapidly
  2. Run fluid mechanics experiments to determine the rate of jet dissipation with the cone
• Tube spacings

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