Data Analysis on New Setup
Method
The team has decided to proceed with experiments even though the recirculation problem has not been fixed. By conducting test runs, we are hoping to get a better understanding of how the new setup will effect the settling efficiency of tube flocculator. We would also compare the experimental data from this setup to the data from previous setup.
The length of the tube flocculator is the same as in the previous setup (50ft). The concentration of clay and alum used in the experimental runs were the same as in the previous setup, which are 50NTU and 25mg/L, respectively. The flow rate was fixed at 3.1 mL/s in order to compare data from previous experiments with similar function setup.
Results and Discussions
Figure 1 shows ten datasets during settling state. The fluctuation of datasets is due the circulation problem. Assuming datasets from previous experiment experiencing similar problem, we would consider to proceed with data analysis and comparison.
Figure 1 Ten sedimentation datasets showing the decrease of turbidity over period of time.
Figure 2 illustrates the effect of different setups of tube flocculator. Using similar initial parameters, the new setup shows a faster drop than the previous setup. This could be an indicator that the new setup has more bigger flocs during the settling state than the previous one. Data smoothing is applied to eliminate fluctuation due to recirculation problem that previously indicated. Only one dataset is chosen to illustrate the point.
Figure 2 The data was smoothed using window average of 33.
The raw data is also normalized and Figure 2 indicates that the changing of setup does not have too much effect to the data.
Figure 3 The raw data was normalized.