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plate settler length
plate settler diameter
plate settler angle
capture velocity
upward velocity
turbidity of source water
coagulant dosage
natural organic matter
Dependent
velocity gradient
residence time (in plate settler and flocculator and floc blanket)
EXPERIMENTAL DIRECTION
This summer the plate settler team will work on generating a controlled ideal experiment as a basis for understanding the robustness of the plate settling system. We plan to test how the settlers function under a wide variance of conditions, since changes in alum dosage and influent turbidity inevitably affect the sedimentation process in many ways. Keeping in mind that the presence of things like natural organic matter in our raw water disturbs floc blanket behavior at a molecular level, we hope to gain some physical insight into how the settling system responds to these fluctuations.
Velocity gradients within the tube settlers have proven to be very important. and we hope to continue past investigation into the nature of their formation, profiles, and physical consequences relative to our system. Why? Discuss mechanism here by which velocity gradients pull up floc particles. Particles that are supposed to settle out somehow make it into the effluent, and we would like to figure out why this is happening. Since it is likely that the density of our floc particles strongly depends on variable external parameters (like alum dosage and influent turbidity), our direction is highly geared towards a fluid dynamics anlysis.