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Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering >> 2007, Volume 1, Issue 3 doi: 10.1007/s11783-007-0045-x

Optimizing the configuration of a clearwell by integrating pilot and full-scale tracer testing

Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;

Available online: 2007-09-05

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Abstract

In this paper, the main factors impacting the plug flow pattern of a clearwell were investigated by integrating pilot-scale, full-scale clearwell tracer testing and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. It was found that pilot tracer testing, full-scale tracer testing and CFD simulation all demonstrated that the correlation between the ratio of / and can be approximately expressed by: / = 0.189 4ln()-0.049 4. This study confirmed that the installation of baffles within clearwells is an efficient way to optimize their configuration. In addition, the inlet velocity has a minimal contribution to the ratio of /. However, the ratio of turning channel width to channel width () significantly contributes to the ratio of/. The optimal ratio of is 0.8–1.2 for maintaining better plug flow pattern. The number of turning channels is one of the main factors that impact the ratio of /. When increasing the number of turning channels, a lower ratio of / is obtained.

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