Lab 1 - Preliminary Design of a Settling

Tank
Prof. Hofmann

Background
A town wants to install a conventional horizontal flow sedimentation tank (i.e. a simple, rectangular
tank) to treat its water such that the effluent TSS is less than 50 mg/L. The depth of the tank will be 1.5
m (which is actually unrealistically shallow!), and the flowrate in the plant is 10 MLD.
Assume that the surface area for the sedimentation tank(s) will be 200 m2. Conduct a settling column
test on the water sample provided to estimate whether the TSS criterion will be met.
If the TSS criterion is not met, estimate the surface area required.

Experimental Methods
You will conduct two settling column tests in parallel (it is always better to duplicate experiments, and
pool the data). While the dimensions of the two parallel settling columns are slightly different, you can
still pool the data and plot it together. Its up to you to decide the best way to do this.
In general, you will fill the two settling columns with water sample, and then collect TSS samples at the
different sampling ports over 1 hour. Note that the bottom sampling port lies in the sludge zone so do
not take TSS samples from this port since the solids are no longer settling.
It is recommended that you collect TSS samples at the following time intervals (the lab supervisor may
adjust these times as necessary): 0, 3, 6, 12, 20, 35, 50 minutes. Measure the TSS of the water sample
before filling the two columns. This will be the concentration at time t = 0.
Be sure to purge the sampling port of old sample before collecting the new sample.
It is up to you to learn how to measure TSS before conducting the experiment.

Data Analysis
Apply methods (do both Type I and Type II settling) that you learned in class to solve this problem. It is
expected that the results be shown in a table as well as in graphical format as per class notes for Type I
and Type II settling problems. Show the data, and answer the design problem. Briefly discuss any
sources of uncertainty that you have, and how they might affect your final design solution or
recommendation. Explain why you think that Type I or Type II is the better analysis in this case.

APPENDIX Examples of Settling

Calculations
TYPE 1 Example:

Data for the settling analysis of a Type 1 water sample is shown in the table below:
Time (min.)
-1

Concentration (mg L )

60

80

100

130

200

240

420

300

189

180

168

156

111

78

27

The data will be used to determine the removal efficiency in a settling basin with a loading rate of 25

3
2

*********
1. Calculate the mass fraction remaining and the settling velocity using the following equations.
C

Mass fraction remaining = C i where C0 is conc. at time = o; Ci is conc. at time = ti

Settling velocity, vt =
Time (min.)
Mass fraction remaining
vt x 10-2 (m/min)

Z0
t

where Z0 is distance travelled by particles, t is time taken

60
0.63
3.3

80
0.6
2.5

100
0.56
2

130
0.52
1.55

200
0.37
1

240
0.26
0.83

2. Plot the mass fraction remaining versus settling velocity as shown in the Figure 1 below.

420
0.09
0.48

Figure 1: Removal Fraction vs Settling Velocity

3. Determine the velocity (v0) which equals the surface loading rate of 25 2 (1.7 x 102 m min-1)

4. The Removal Efficiency is given by (R) = (1 r0) + [area above curve but below ro]/overflow rate
5. From the graph (Figure 1) above, r0 = 54%
5. Numerically integrate the area above the curve in the graph, up to ro.
Element
1
2
3
4
5

r
0.04
0.15
0.15
0.11
0.09
TOTAL =

vt x 10-2
1.6
1.25
0.91
0.6
0.24

r . vt x 10-2
0.06
0.19
0.13
0.07
0.02
0.47

Removal = (1 0.54) + 0.47/1.7 = 0.46 + 0.27 = 0.73 or 73%

TYPE II Example:
Data for the settling analysis of a Type II water sample is shown in the table below. The initial total
solids concentration is 250 mg/L. Determine the overall removal efficiency for a settling basin 3 m deep
and a detention time of 1h and 45 minutes.
Depth
(m)
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0

30
133
180
203
213
220
225

60
83
125
150
168
180
188

Time of Sampling (min)

90
120
150
50
38
30
93
65
55
118
93
70
135
110
90
145
123
103
155
133
113

180
23
43
58
70
80
95

**********
1. Determine the removal rate at each depth and time using the equation:
xij = 1

Ci

C0

Normalised Concentrations - Percent

Time of sampling (min)
Depth (m)
30
60
90
120
150
0.5
47
67
80
85
88
1.0
28
50
63
74
78
1.5
19
40
53
63
72
2.0
15
33
46
56
64
2.5
12
28
42
51
59
3.0
10
25
38
47
55
2. Plot iso-concentration lines as shown in Figure 2.
3. Construct a vertical line at t0 = 105 min
4. Calculate the removal efficiency (R) using the equation:

where from Figure 2, Rintercept = 43%

R = R intercept +

1
(Zi R)
H

180
91
83
77
72
68
62

(Note: if calculating overall removal efficiency for a tank that is 2 m deep, your Rintercept would be at a
depth of 2 m on the graph (about 51% removal) not 3 m. You can explore removal efficiencies for
hypothetical tanks of any depth up to 3 m using this chart.)

Figure 2: Type II Settling Analysis

From Figure 2, integrating gives the following:

Element

Zi

R . Zi

r1
r2
r3
r4
r5
r6

0.07
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
TOTAL

2.55
1.73
1.13
0.72
0.39
0.12

0.179
0.173
0.113
0.072
0.039
0.012
0.588

Removal Efficiency (R) = 0.43 + 1/3 (0.588) = 0.63 or 63%