Los Plancitos

The water treatment plant for Los Plancitos is being designed for Aguas de Santa Rosa. The plant is to have a design flow rate of 10 L/s. The effluent from the plant will be pumped through 5 pressurized rapid sand filters. The

This design is being created using the current design tool version (The version number of the MathCAD files used to create this design is 1893). This version is Cuatro Comunidades technology that uses inlet manifolds in the triangles that form the valley in the sedimentation tank. The inlet design will be modified manually in AutoCAD to create a design that uses a pipe for the inlet manifold.

The hydraulic design for this facility will be modified from the conventional AguaClara design to have the flow controlled by the pump that is sending water to the filters. The conventional AguaClara design uses a valve at the inlet to the entrance tank as the flow control. If we used that same design for Los Plancitos it would be difficult to operate because it would be necessary to match the flow into the plant to the pump flow rate and as head loss through the filters changed and the pump flow rate changed it would be necessary for the operator to continually regulate the AguaClara plant flow. To avoid this operational difficulty the hydraulics of this plant will be changed from upstream flow control to downstream flow control. The flow through the plant will be completely controlled by the effluent pump. The flow rate into the entrance tank will not be controlled. Instead, the water level in the entrance tank will be controlled. There are two options for this control.

1. A sharp crested weir will be used to control the water level and excess water will be wasted (a bad choice given the high cost of pumping this water), returned to the 150 cubic meter storage tank, or somehow added to the transmission line that takes water to the water treatment plant for Santa Rosa de Copan.
2. A float valve will be used to control the water level in the entrance tank. This would be the easiest option to implement. A disadvantage may be the wear on the float valve due to the high sediment load in the raw water. This will also need to be a large float valve and thus it will be a relatively expensive item.

Design Files created by the AguaClara Design Tool

AguaClara Design Tool data input
Excel sheet with design values
AutoCAD drawing

Design Files containing current design

Overall Hydraulic Alternatives for Aguaclara plant at Los Plancitos
AutoCAD drawing with design changes