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The final design involves an inlet pipe down the center of the tank instead of two inlet manifolds under the slopes. The pipe will be a 6" diameter PVC pipe. The Refer to the Inlet Manifold Equations for theoretical information. This pipe will subtitute the inlet manifolds bellow the slopes which will be filled in with concrete. The slopes will remain though so that flocs are directed toward the sludge drain if they settle.
Ideally, a floc blanket will be formed. In order to more likely achieve a floc blanket, the orifices in the inlet manifold pipe will point downward, to re-elevate settled sludge along the sludge drain cover. If the floc blanket fails, the pipe can be rotated 180 degrees.
One issue that has yet to be resolved is how to distribute the flow of water evenly throughout this pipe. This includes potentially tapering the pipe and determining the size and spacing of the orifices and their positioning in relation to the sludge drain orifices. With this design, we will have more flow through the last ports of the inlet manifold pipe as the presure recovery is higher than the major headloss through the manifold. Refer to Inlet Manifold Equations.
In order to purge the floc blanket to keep the desired concentration of flocs in it we are designing a Floc Hopper whose objective is to trap floc and concentrate them so that when we purge, not much water is wastedIf possible, a floc blanket should be formed. The postitioning of the floc weir hopper to accomplish this is yet to be determined. In order to more likely achieve a floc blanket, the orifices in the pipe will point downward, to re-elevate settled sludge along the bottom. If the floc blanket fails, the pipe can be rotated 180 degrees.
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Sludge Drain
The main innovation on the sludge drain is its cover. Initially the cover served also as a support for the slope, bu now, as the slopes are built by a solid piece of concrete, this is not necesary any more.
One of the advantages of the new design is that it is much easier to clean, as the only removable parts will be the 6 in PVC inlet manifold and the drain cover which was designed in sections to make it easy to remove. Also, the fact that the floc have settle inside the sedimentation tank which has a sludge drain specifically designed to purge all the sludge will imply that after emptying the tanks we woill have very little to none sludge to clean from the bottom of the tank.