4.

Water treatment:
flow equalization

Sudha Goel
Civil Eng. Dept., IITKgp
Kharagpur 721 302

K&C; M&E; SKG 1

 Flow equalization or balancing
storage

Flow is never constant; seasonal and diurnal
variations,

Water treatment: differences in demand during the
day or year
 Objective is to provide a constant supply at all times
during the day to meet fluctuating demand

Principle is used for designing storage reservoirs
for water distribution and for equalization tanks in
wastewater treatment plants

K&C; M&E; SKG 2

 Flow equalization or balancing
storage

Wastewater treatment:
 Objective: For greater process efficiency, important to have
uniform flow
 Can reduce size and therefore, cost of treatment facilities

Two methods of providing equalization in wastewater treatment
plants
 In-line: large capacity since entire flow passes through
equalization basin, greater uniformity in flow and strength
 Off-line: smaller capacity since only part of the flow is diverted,
and mixed again with remaining flow; lower cost of construction
and pumping. Uniformity is affected; not as good as above.

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Flow equalization

ME 4
 Storage capacity of water distribution
reservoirs

Balancing storage

Breakdown storage (for power failures and
breakdown of pumps, etc.) – 25% of total
capacity

Fire demand – as discussed previously!
1 to 5 L/person-day for storage
 3 water jets discharging 1100 L/min are needed for fire
fighting; duration from 4 to 24 h is provided depending on
nature of activities and economic factors.

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 To determine volume of balancing storage
reservoir or flow equalization tank
1. Collect pumping or demand data (flowrates) for specific
time intervals
2. Determine cumulative flow
3. Plot a hydraulic mass diagram or curve or compute
analytically using spreadsheet
4. Draw line connecting
 CASE I: For 24 hour analysis, from origin to last point on
hydraulic mass diagram
 CASE II: For intermittent pumping, from point (x=time at which
pumping starts, y=0) to point (x=end of pumping, y= total
cumulative volume for the day)
5. Draw tangents parallel to the points on the demand
curve that are furthest (above and below) from the line
for average flow rate 6
 To determine volume of balancing storage
reservoir or flow equalization tank

 Volume of equalization tank = vertical

distance between lines of tangency.
 In practice, provide additional 20% for
freeboard, shock flows, etc.

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8
 Flow equalization

ME 9
Balancing
storage

SKG 10
Volume of equalization tank – 24 h pumping
SKG - p654, prob10.1 Population = 1 million people
Difference
water Average between
demand, Cumulative flow rate, actual and
time time, h ML demand, L L/h average
0 0 0 0
0500 to 1100 h 5 90 90 56.25 33.75
1100 to 1500 h 11 54 144 123.75 20.25
1500 to 2100 h 15 81 225 168.75 56.25
2100 to 2400 h 21 27 252 236.25 15.75
2400 to 0500 h 24 18 270 270 0
Total 270 ML/d
Average 11.25 ML/h

Volume of equalization tank 56.25 ML

Solution can be obtained analytically

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Volume of equalization tank – 24 h pumping

12
Volume of equalization tank – 8 h pumping
Problem 10.2

Difference
Average between
water Cumulative flow rate, actual and
time time, h demand, L demand, L L/h average time, h
0 0
7 0.00 0 0 0 0
0700 to 0800 h 8 67500.00 67500 0 67500 8
0800 to 1700 h 17 78750.00 146250 225000 16
1700 to 1830 h 18.5 67500.00 213750 213750
1830 to 0700 h 31 11250.00 225000 225000
Total 225000 L/d
Average 9375 L/h
Pumping is for 8 h/d starting at 8:00 AM
Volume of equalization tank 155000 L

Interpolating demand between 8 h and 17 h for137500

16 h demand 87500

Solution can be obtained analytically

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Volume of equalization tank – 8 h pumping

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MZ 2010 11.2

volume of cumulative Average difference between

flow during influent flow rate, actual and average
time period time, h period, m3 volume, m3 m3/h flow
0 0 0 0 0.00
0 to 1 1 1090 1090 1218.2 128.21
1 to 2 2 987 2077 2436.4 359.42
2 to 3 3 701 2778 3654.6 876.63
3 to 4 4 568 3346 4872.8 1526.83
4 to 5 5 487 3833 6091.0 2258.04
5 to 6 6 475 4308 7309.3 3001.25
6 to 7 7 532 4840 8527.5 3687.46
7 to 8 8 838 5678 9745.7 4067.67
8 to 9 9 1375 7053 10963.9 3910.88
9 to 10 10 1565 8618 12182.1 3564.08
10 to 11 11 1630 10248 13400.3 3152.29
11 to 12 12 1649 11897 14618.5 2721.50
12 to 13 13 1640 13537 15836.7 2299.71
13 to 14 14 1545 15082 17054.9 1972.92
14 to 15 15 1495 16577 18273.1 1696.13
15 to 16 16 1490 18067 19491.3 1424.33
16 to 17 17 1270 19337 20709.5 1372.54
17 to 18 18 1270 20607 21927.8 1320.75
18 to 19 19 1290 21897 23146.0 1248.96
19 to 20 20 1424 23321 24364.2 1043.17
20 to 21 21 1548 24869 25582.4 713.38
21 to 22 22 1550 26419 26800.6 381.58
22 to 23 23 1476 27895 28018.8 123.79
23 to 24 24 1342 29237 29237.0 0.00
Average 1218 m3/h 15
Volume of storage reservoir

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Location and height of distribution reservoir

Two types of distribution reservoirs:
 Underground or
 Elevated reservoirs

Reservoirs should be as close to service area as
possible to reduce friction losses and loss of
head due to pipe length

High elevation allows higher pressure head

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Elevated reservoirs help to save energy
and money in terms of pumping costs:
 Pumped head required without a
storage reservoir is 329’
 With elevated reservoir in between
supply reservoir and center of
service area, head required is 227’
 With elevated reservoir outside
service area, head required is 250’

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