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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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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
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