Hydraulic Design of Activated Sludge Tanks with CFD
A. J. Bosma, and B. A. Reitsma
Tauw bv, Deventer, The Netherlands
The hydraulic design of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) is usually based on general guidelines and experience. Research and development in this field is mainly focused on understanding and improvement of the biological processes.
In this article we present modeling of the activated sludge tanks of the wastewater treatment plants in Amsterdam-West and Eindhoven. For both locations, a number of operational scenarios are evaluated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
These calculations provide useful information for the assessment of risks on short-circuit flows and sedimentation.
The CFD results are compared with measurements and show good agreement. The gained insight in the hydraulic design improves the operation of the wastewater treatment plants and reduces energy and maintenance costs.