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As seen above, the flow rate is also based on the inner diameter of the tube settlers, upflow velocity, tube length, and angle. Additionally, the critical velocity (Vc) is dependent on the inner diameter of the tube settlers (see equation below). The critical velocity is the velocity of the flow that facilitates particle settling.
Where b is the tube diameter.
Evidently, analysis of the inner diameter of the tube settlers is important to understand how to optimize understanding other key parameters of the system such as flow rate and critical velocity. The inner diameter of the tubes is analogous to the spacing between lamella in parallel plate sedimentation. The Due to the codependency of these and other parameters, determination of the optimal diameter is multi-faceted.
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