A Study on Applicability of Coagulant Mixer and Flow Analysis of the Non-powered Vortex Mixer using CFD

Abstract

This study compared and analyzed the water treatment efficiency and the applicability of water treatment plant using the existing Mechanical Rapid-Mixer by introducing the Non-powered Vortex Mixer to the domestic water treatment plant. For this study, fluid flow characteristics and head loss of a Non-powered Vortex Mixer are calculated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)respectively. The head loss rate inside the mixer was 11.30% when the inflow velocity was 0.5 m/sec, 16.27% at 0.6 m/sec and 21.44% at 0.7 m/sec, the head loss rapidly increased at the optimal velocity of 0.5 m/sec. For the inflow velocity of 0.5 m/sec, the turbulent intensity at the inlet was 2.37% and at the outlet was 7.83%, so there was sufficient mixing strength for the particulate matter and the coagulant. The result of the water quality of the treatment plants with the inflow velocity of 0.38 m/sec that was operated in three years after replacing all 12 units of the existing Rapid-Mixer with the Non-powered Mixer met the standards. Hence, it is possible to reduce the energy consumption of 64,143 ~ 65,306 kWh/year since the Rapid-Mixer is replaced by the Non-powered Vortex Mixer.

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling and Field Applications of Non-Powered Hydraulic Mixing in Water Treatment Plants

“…In the case of the non-powered hydraulic mixing, the G value cannot be obtained via the same equation used for the conventional mechanical mixer because the power value (P) of the non-powered hydraulic mixing is zero [27]. Thus, the mixing efficiency of the non-powered hydraulic mixing cannot be calculated based on mixing intensity.…”