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Agalteca is unique in being the first plant to be designed largely using the Automated Design Tool.
Design Specifics
Entrance Tank
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The inlet channel was modified to have only one opening leading to the sedimentation tank instead of two. See the explanation for this under Sedimentation Tank. The concrete in the inlet channel will be rounded going into the pipe so that the transition of flow is smoother. the The construction sequence for this transition will be done as follows:
before pouring the concrete for the base slab of the inlet cchannelchannel, a 90 deg elbow will be coupled to the 6" pipe (substituting the chimeneys). The idea is thet the concrete follows the shape of the elbow in the bottom slab of the channel to reduce the expansion los loss created by the change in direction of the flow. Please refer to the Construction sequence graphical explanation.
Sedimentation Tank
The sedimentation tank design is significantly different from previous designs. The main problem that brought about the change is that too much sludge was settling out in the inlet manifolds at Cuatro Comunidades. There was originally a similar design for Agalteca, so it needed to be fixed. To see a list of ideas on how to fix this problem until the final design was chosen, click here. To see other potential changes that can be made if needed to correct this problem, click here.
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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 flocs and concentrate them so that when we purge, not much water is wasted. The postitioning of the floc hopper to accomplish this is yet to be determined.
Wireframe Image
Conceptual Image
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Inlet Manifold
An inlet manifold is used to transport the flocs from the inlet channel to the sedimentation tank taking into account two constraints. Floc breakup and Floc sedimentation.
Floc breakup occurs when the energy dissipation is very high. From initial tests done by the AguaClara team, the maximum energy dissipation rate to prevent floc break up was 6 mW/kg. Previous plants (i.e. Cuatro Comunidades), where designed with this constraint and showed heavy sedimentation. Velocity in the manifolds was very low and particles settled here. According to the Ten State Standards, the minimum velocity of water inside a pipe should be 0.15 m/s to prevent sedimentation.
The objective of the new design was to prevent particle settling inside the manifold without increasing the energy dissipation rate to prevent floc breakup. For the final design a pipe manifold was used.
Design parameters of the manifold, results of energy dissipation rate and velocity inside the manifold are shown in the following tables.
Design Parameters
Number of ports |
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15cm | |
Spacing between ports |
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20cm | |
Port Diameter |
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4cm |
Maximun Energy Dissipation Rate (mW/kg) | 7.089 |
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Velocity inside Manifol (m/s) | 0.173 |
Wireframe Image
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Conceptual Image
Sludge Drain
The main innovation on the sludge drain is its cover. Initially the cover served also as a support for the slope, but 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 inch PVC inlet manifold and the drain cover which was designed in sections to make it easy to remove. Also, the fact that the flocs will settle inside the sedimentation tank, which has a sludge drain specifically designed to purge all the sludge, will imply that after emptying the tanks the remaining sludge in the bottom of the sedimentation tank will be very little to none.
The idea of designing the sludge drain cover with small orifices is to create an even vacum along the entire length of the sedimentation tank to reduce dead spaces where sludge could be accumulated.
Plant Drawings
AutoCAD drawing Click to download