Chlorine, symbol Cl, greenish-yellow gaseous element.

In group 17 (or VIIa) of the periodic table (see Periodic Law), chlorine is one of the halogens. The atomic number of chlorine is 17. Elementary chlorine was first isolated in 1774 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who thought that the gas was a compound; it was not until 1810 that the British chemist Sir Humphry Davy proved that chlorine was an element and gave it its present name. At ordinary temperatures, chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas that can readily be liquefied under pressure of 5170 torr, or 6.8 atmospheres, at 20 C (68 F). The gas has an irritating odor and in large concentration is dangerous; it was the first substance used as a poison gas in World War I (1914-1919) (see Chemical and Biological Warfare). Free chlorine does not occur in nature, but its compounds are common minerals, and it is the 20th most abundant element in the earth's crust. Chlorine melts at -101 C (-149.8 F), boils at -34.05 C (-29.29 F) at one atmosphere pressure, and has a specific gravity of 1.41 at -35 C (-31 F); the atomic weight of the element is 35.453. Chlorine is an active element, reacting with water, organic compounds, and many metals. Four oxides have been prepared: Cl2O, ClO2, Cl2O6, and Cl2O7. Chlorine will not burn in air, but it will support the combustion of many substances; an ordinary paraffin candle, for example, will burn in chlorine with a smoky flame. Chlorine and hydrogen can be kept together in the dark, but react explosively in the presence of light. Chlorine solutions in water are familiar in the home as bleaching agents. Most chlorine is produced by the electrolysis of ordinary salt solution, with sodium hydroxide as a by-product. Because the demand for chlorine exceeds that for sodium hydroxide, some industrial chlorine is produced by treating salt with nitrogen oxides or by oxidizing hydrogen chloride. Chlorine is shipped as a liquid in steel bottles or tank cars. It is used for bleaching paper pulp and other organic materials, destroying germ life in water, and preparing bromine, tetraethyl lead, and other important products.1

1"Chlorine," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Water Desalinization To meet the ever-increasing demands for fresh water, especially in arid and semiarid areas, much research has gone into finding efficient methods of removing salt from seawater and brackish waters. In the U.S., desalinization research is directed by the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior. Several processes are being developed to produce fresh water cheaply. Three of the processes involve evaporation followed by condensation of the resultant steam and are known as multiple-effect evaporation, vapor-compression distillation, and flash evaporation. The last-named method, the most widely used, involves heating seawater and pumping it into lower-pressure tanks, where the water abruptly vaporizes (flashes) into steam. The steam then condenses and is drawn off as pure water. In 1967, Key West, Florida, opened a flashevaporation plant and thus became the first city in the U.S. to draw its fresh water from the sea. Freezing is an alternate method, based on the different freezing points of fresh and salt water. The ice crystals are separated from the brine, washed free of salt, and melted into fresh water. In another process, called reverse osmosis, pressure is used to force fresh water through a thin membrane that does not allow the minerals to pass. Reverse osmosis is still undergoing intensive development. Electrodialysis is being used to desalt brackish waters. When salt dissolves in water, it splits into positive and negative ions, which are then removed by electric current through anion and cation membranes, thus depleting the salt in the product water. Although developmental work on electrodialysis is continuing, a number of commercial plants are in operation. In 1962 Buckeye, Arizona, became the first town to have all its water supplied by its own electrodialysis-desalting plant, which provides about 2,460,000 liters (about 650,000 gallons) of water daily at a cost of about $1 per 6300 liters (1670 gallons). One major problem in desalinization projects is the cost of producing fresh water. Using conventional fuels, plants with a capacity of 3.8 million liters (1 million gallons) per day or less produce water at a cost of $1 or more per 3800 liters (1000 gallons). More than 500 such plants are in operation, with a total capacity of nearly 473 million liters (nearly 125 million gallons) a day;

however, their high costs limit their use to areas of great water scarcity. Water from conventional sources, such as wells and reservoirs, is sold for less than 30 cents per 3800 liters delivered to the home, and water for irrigation is usually priced at less than 5 cents per 3800 liters. The dualpurpose atomic power and water-desalting plants now being planned are designed to produce fresh water for between 20 and 30 cents per 3800 liters. Most experts expect more immediate results from efforts to purify mildly brackish water that contains between 1000 and 4500 parts per million of minerals, compared to 35,000 parts per million for ocean water. Because water is potable if it contains fewer than 500 parts per million of salt, the cost of desalting brackish water is correspondingly less than it is for desalting seawater. See Solar Energy; See Also Waterpower; Water Supply and Waterworks. For other functions of water, see Erosion; Geology; Metabolism. Contributed By: Seymour Z. Lewin2 2"Water," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Properties

Water Cycle or Hydrologic Cycle, series of movements of water above, on, and below the surface of the earth. The water cycle consists of four distinct stages: storage, evaporation, precipitation, and runoff. Water may be stored temporarily in the ground; in oceans, lakes, and rivers; and in ice caps and glaciers. It evaporates from the earths surface, condenses in clouds, falls back to the earth as precipitation (rain or snow), and eventually either runs into the seas or reevaporates into the atmosphere. Almost all the water on the earth has passed through the water cycle countless times. Very little water has been created or lost over the past billion years. Storage

Pure water is an odorless, tasteless liquid. It has a bluish tint, which may be detected, however, only in layers of considerable depth. Under standard atmospheric pressure (760 mm of mercury, or 760 torr); the freezing point of water is 0 C (32 F) and its boiling point is 100 C (212 F). Water attains its maximum density at a temperature of 4 C (39 F) and expands upon freezing. Like most other liquids, water can exist in a supercooled state; that is, it may remain a liquid although its temperature is below its freezing point. Water can easily be cooled to about -25 C (13 F) without freezing, either under laboratory conditions or in the atmosphere itself. Supercooled water will freeze if it is disturbed, if the temperature is lowered further, or if an ice crystal or other particle is added to it. Its physical properties are used as standards to define the calorie and specific and latent heat (see Heat) and in the metric system for the original definition of the unit of mass, the gram. Water is one of the best-known ionizing agents (see Ionization). Because most substances are somewhat soluble in water, it is frequently called the universal solvent. Water combines with certain salts to form hydrates. It reacts with metal oxides to form acids (see Acids and Bases). It acts as a catalyst in many important chemical reactions. Occurrence Water is the only substance that occurs at ordinary temperatures in all three states of matter, that is, as a solid, a liquid, and a gas. As a solid, or ice, it is found as glaciers and ice caps, on water surfaces in winter, as snow, hail, and frost, and as clouds formed of ice crystals. It occurs in the liquid state as rain clouds formed of water droplets, and on vegetation as dew; in addition, it covers three-quarters of the surface of the earth in the form of swamps, lakes, rivers, and oceans. As gas, or water vapor, it occurs as fog, steam, and clouds. Atmospheric vapor is measured in terms of relative humidity, which is the ratio of the quantity of vapor actually present to the greatest amount possible at a given temperature. See Atmosphere; Cloud; Fog; Humidity; Rain. Water occurs as moisture in the upper portion of the soil profile, in which it is held by capillary action to the particles of soil. In this state, it is called bound water and has different characteristics from free water See Soil; Soil Management. Under the influence of gravity, water accumulates in rock interstices beneath the surface of the earth as a vast groundwater reservoir supplying wells and springs and sustaining the flow of some streams during periods of drought. Water in Life Water is the major constitutent of living matter. From 50 to 90 percent of the weight of living organisms is water. Protoplasm, the basic material of living cells, consists of a solution in water of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, salts, and similar chemicals. Water acts as a solvent, transporting,

Enormous volumes of water are involved in the water cycle. There are about 1.4 billion cu km (about 340 million cu mi) of water on the earth, enough to cover the United States with water 160 km (99 mi) deep. Slightly more than 97 percent of this amount is ocean water and is therefore salty. However, because the water that evaporates from the ocean is almost free of salt, the rain and snow that fall on the earth are relatively fresh. Fresh water is stored in glaciers, lakes, and rivers. It is also stored as groundwater in the soil and rocks. There are about 36 million cu km (about 8.6 million cu mi) of fresh water on the earth.

combining, and chemically breaking down these substances. Blood in animals and sap in plants consist largely of water and serve to transport food and remove waste material. Water also plays a key role in the metabolic breakdown of such essential molecules as proteins and carbohydrates. This process, called hydrolysis, goes on continually in living cells. Natural Water Cycle Hydrology is the science concerned with the distribution of water on the earth, its physical and chemical reactions with other naturally occurring substances, and its relation to life on earth; the continuous movement of water between the earth and the atmosphere is known as the hydrological cycle. Under several influences, of which heat is predominant, water is evaporated from both water and land surfaces and is transpired from living cells. This vapor circulates through the atmosphere and is precipitated in the form of rain or snow. See Meteorology. On striking the surface of the earth, the water follows two paths. In amounts determined by the intensity of the rain and the porosity, permeability, thickness, and previous moisture content of the soil, one part of the water, termed surface runoff, flows directly into rills and streams and thence into oceans or landlocked bodies of water; the remainder infiltrates into the soil. A part of the infiltrated water becomes soil moisture, which may be evaporated directly or may move upward through the roots of vegetation to be transpired from leaves. The portion of the water that overcomes the forces of cohesion and adhesion in the soil profile percolates downward, accumulating in the so-called zone of saturation to form the groundwater reservoir, the surface of which is known as the water table. Under natural conditions, the water table rises intermittently in response to replenishment, or recharge, and then declines as a result of continuous drainage into natural outlets such as springs. See Spring. Composition Because of its capacity to dissolve numerous substances in large amounts, pure water rarely occurs in nature. During condensation and precipitation, rain or snow absorbs from the atmosphere varying amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases, as well as traces of organic and inorganic material. In addition, precipitation carries radioactive fallout to the earth's surface. In its movement on and through the earth's crust, water reacts with minerals in the soil and rocks. The principal dissolved constituents of surface and groundwater are sulfates, chlorides, and bicarbonates of sodium and potassium and the oxides of calcium and magnesium. Surface waters may also contain domestic sewage and industrial wastes. Groundwaters from shallow wells may contain large quantities of nitrogen compounds and chlorides derived from human and animal wastes. Waters from deep wells generally contain only minerals in solution. Almost all supplies of

The atmosphere holds about 12,000 cu km (about 2900 cu mi) of water at any time, while all the worlds rivers and freshwater lakes hold about 120,000 cu km (about 29,000 cu mi). The worlds two main reservoirs of fresh water are the great polar ice caps, which contain about 28 million cu km (about 6.7 million cu mi), and the ground, which contains about 8 million cu km (about 2 million cu mi). Almost all of the worlds fresh ice is found in the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland. These ice caps cover more than 17 million sq km (more than 6.6 million sq mi) of land to an average depth of more than 1.5 km (more than 0.93 mi). Most other glaciers, formed in mountain valleys at high

natural drinking water contain flourides in varying amounts. The proper proportion of flourides in drinking water has been found to reduce tooth decay. See Fluorine. Seawater contains, in addition to concentrated amounts of sodium chloride, or salt, many other soluble compounds, as the impure waters of rivers and streams are constantly feeding the oceans. At the same time, pure water is continually lost by the process of evaporation, and as a result the proportion of the impurities that give the oceans their saline character is increased. See Ocean and Oceanography. Water Purification Suspended and dissolved impurities present in naturally occurring water make it unsuitable for many purposes. Objectionable organic and inorganic materials are removed by such methods as screening and sedimentation to eliminate suspended materials; treatment with such compounds as activated carbon to remove tastes and odors; filtration; and chlorination or irradiation to kill infective microorganisms. See Also Sewage Disposal. In aeration, or the saturation of water with air, water is brought into contact with air in such a manner as to produce maximum diffusion, usually by spraying water into the air in fountains. Aeration removes odors and taste caused by decomposing organic matter, and also industrial wastes such as phenols and volatile gases such as chlorine. It also converts dissolved iron and manganese compounds into insoluble hydrated oxides of the metals which may then be readily settled out. Hardness of natural waters is caused largely by calcium and magnesium salts and to a small extent by iron, aluminum, and other metals. Hardness resulting from the bicarbonates and carbonates of calcium and magnesium is called temporary hardness and can be removed by boiling, which also sterilizes the water. The residual hardness is known as noncarbonate, or permanent, hardness. The methods of softening noncarbonate hardness include the addition of sodium carbonate and lime and filtration through natural or artificial zeolites which absorb the hardness-producing metallic ions and release sodium ions to the water See Ion Exchange; Zeolite. Sequestering agents in detergents serve to inactivate the substances that make water hard. Iron, which causes an unpleasant taste in drinking water, may be removed by aeration and sedimentation or by passing the water through iron-removing zeolite filters, or the iron may be stabilized by addition of such salts as polyphosphates. For use in laboratory applications, water is either distilled or demineralized by passing it through ion-absorbing compounds. Water Desalinization

latitudes, are tiny compared to the ice caps. If all of the ice in the ice caps and other glaciers melted, it would raise the sea level by about 80 m (about 260 ft). The amount of water stored as ice on the land varies with climate. At the peak of the last ice age, about 22,000 years ago, an additional 20 million sq km (8 million sq mi) of landincluding almost all of Canada, the northern fringe of the United States, northern Europe, and large tracts in Siberiawere covered with ice about 1.5 km (about 0.93 mi) thick. Because this water came from the oceans, sea level was about 120 m (about 390 ft) lower than it is today. Most water in the ice caps remains frozen for centuries and is not readily accessible.

To meet the ever-increasing demands for fresh water, especially in arid and semiarid areas, much research has gone into finding efficient methods of removing salt from seawater and brackish waters. In the U.S., desalinization research is directed by the Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior. Several processes are being developed to produce fresh water cheaply. Three of the processes involve evaporation followed by condensation of the resultant steam and are known as multiple-effect evaporation, vapor-compression distillation, and flash evaporation. The last-named method, the most widely used, involves heating seawater and pumping it into lower-pressure tanks, where the water abruptly vaporizes (flashes) into steam. The steam then condenses and is drawn off as pure water. In 1967, Key West, Florida, opened a flashevaporation plant and thus became the first city in the U.S. to draw its fresh water from the sea. Freezing is an alternate method, based on the different freezing points of fresh and salt water. The ice crystals are separated from the brine, washed free of salt, and melted into fresh water. In another process, called reverse osmosis, pressure is used to force fresh water through a thin membrane that does not allow the minerals to pass. Reverse osmosis is still undergoing intensive development. Electrodialysis is being used to desalt brackish waters. When salt dissolves in water, it splits into positive and negative ions, which are then removed by electric current through anion and cation membranes, thus depleting the salt in the product water. Although developmental work on electrodialysis is continuing, a number of commercial plants are in operation. In 1962 Buckeye, Arizona, became the first town to have all its water supplied by its own electrodialysis-desalting plant, which provides about 2,460,000 liters (about 650,000 gallons) of water daily at a cost of about $1 per 6300 liters (1670 gallons). One major problem in desalinization projects is the cost of producing fresh water. Using conventional fuels, plants with a capacity of 3.8 million liters (1 million gallons) per day or less produce water at a cost of $1 or more per 3800 liters (1000 gallons). More than 500 such plants are in operation, with a total capacity of nearly 473 million liters (nearly 125 million gallons) a day; however, their high costs limit their use to areas of great water scarcity. Water from conventional sources, such as wells and reservoirs, is sold for less than 30 cents per 3800 liters delivered to the home, and water for irrigation is usually priced at less than 5 cents per 3800 liters. The dualpurpose atomic power and water-desalting plants now being planned are designed to produce fresh water for between 20 and 30 cents per 3800 liters. Most experts expect more immediate results from efforts to purify mildly brackish water that contains between 1000 and 4500 parts per million of minerals, compared to 35,000 parts per million for ocean water. Because water is potable if it contains fewer than 500 parts per million of

Most groundwater is more accessible and supplies much of peoples water needs in many regions of the earth. Permafrost, ground that is always frozen, forms an impermeable barrier to the flow of groundwater. Permafrost occurs in places such as northern Canada and Siberia where the annual average temperature is below 0 C (below 32 F). Almost all groundwater fills the tiny pores and cracks in the soil and rocks. Very little is stored in subterranean caverns. Near the earths surface, most soils and sedimentary rocks are so porous that water can occupy from 20 to 40 percent of their volume. As depth increases, the pores and open spaces in the rocks are squeezed shut. As a result, almost all groundwater is found in the top 8 to 16 km (5 to 10 mi) of the earth. Water below this depth is chemically bound in the rocks and minerals and is not readily available, but it can be released as a result of geologic processes such as volcanic eruptions (see volcano). Evaporation Evaporation is the process by which liquid water changes to water vapor and enters the atmosphere as a gas. Evaporation of ice is called sublimation. Evaporation from the leaf pores, or stomata, of plants is called transpiration. Every day about 1200 cu km (about 290 cu mi) of water evaporates from the ocean, land, plants, and ice caps, while an equal amount of precipitation falls back on the earth. If evaporation did not replenish the water lost by precipitation, the atmosphere would dry out in ten days. The evaporation rate increases with temperature, sunlight intensity, wind speed, plant cover, and ground moisture, and it decreases as the humidity of the air increases. The evaporation rate on the earth varies from almost zero on the polar ice caps to as much as 4 m (as much as 13 ft) per year over the Gulf Stream. The average is about 1 m (about 3.3 ft) per year. At this rate, evaporation would lower sea level about 1 m per year if the water were not replenished by precipitation and runoff. Precipitation Precipitation occurs when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses into clouds and falls to the earth. Precipitation can take a variety of forms, including rain, snow, ice pellets, and hail. About salt, the cost of desalting brackish water is correspondingly less than it is for desalting seawater. See Solar Energy; See Also Waterpower; Water Supply and Waterworks. For other functions of water, see Erosion; Geology; Metabolism. Contributed By: Seymour Z. Lewin

300 cu km (about 70 cu mi) of precipitation falls on the land each day. Almost two-thirds of this precipitation reevaporates into the atmosphere, while the rest flows down rivers to the oceans. Individual storms can produce enormous amounts of precipitation. For example, an average winter low-pressure system drops about 100 cu km (about 24 cu mi) of water on the earth during its lifetime of several days, and a severe thunderstorm can drop 0.1 cu km (0.02 cu mi) of water in a few hours over a small area. Runoff Water that flows down streams and rivers is called surface runoff. Every day about 100 cu km (about 24 cu mi) of water flows into the seas from the worlds rivers. The Amazon River, the worlds largest river, provides about 15 percent of this water. Runoff is not constant. It decreases during periods of drought or dry seasons and increases during rainy seasons, storms, and periods of rapid melting of snow and ice. Water reaches rivers in the form of either overland flow or groundwater flow and then flows downstream. Overland flow occurs during and shortly after intense rainstorms or periods of rapid melting of snow and ice. It can raise river levels rapidly and produce floods. In severe floods, river levels can rise more than 10 m (more than 33 ft) and inundate large areas. Groundwater flow runs through rocks and soil. Precipitation and meltwater percolate into the ground and reach a level, known as the water table, at which all of the spaces in the rocks are filled with water. Groundwater flows from areas where the water table is higher to areas where it is lower. The speed of flow averages less than 1 m (less than 3.3 ft) a day. When groundwater reaches streams, it supplies a base flow that changes little from day to day and can persist for many days or weeks without rain or meltwater. During periods of sustained drought, however, the water table can fall so low that streams and wells dry out. Effects of Human Activity Human beings have been altering the water cycle for thousands of years. Irrigation channels are constructed to bring water to dry land. Wells are dug to obtain water from the ground. Excessive pumping from wells has drastically lowered the water table, depleting some ancient water supplies irreversibly and causing the intrusion of salt water into groundwater in densely populated low-lying coastal regions. Levees are built to control the course of rivers, and dams are built to render rivers navigable, store water, and provide electrical power. Evaporation of water behind dams is a serious source of water loss. Increasing urbanization has led to more severe flooding because rainwater reaches streams more rapidly and in greater quantity from areas where the ground has been paved. As human population continues to grow, effective use and management of the planets water resources have become essential. Careful management of waterworks has alleviated many problems, but limits to the water supply place limits on the sustainable population of an area and can play an important part in the politics of some regions, as in the Middle East. Contributed By: Stanley David Gedzelman3

3"Water Cycle," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Water Pump, device for moving water from one location to another, using tubes or other machinery. Water pumps operate under pressures ranging from a fraction of a pound to more than 10,000 pounds per square inch. Everyday examples of water pumps range from small electric pumps that circulate and aerate water in aquariums and fountains to sump pumps that remove water from beneath the foundations of homes. Two types of modern pumps used to move water are the positive-displacement pump and the centrifugal pump. Positive-displacement pumps use suction created by a vacuum to draw water into a closed space. An example of this type of pump is the lift, or force, pump used commonly in the rural United States until the mid-1900s. The lift pump is operated by raising a handle that is attached to a piston encased in a pipe. Lifting the piston creates a partial vacuum beneath it in the pipe, causing water to be drawn from a well below, through the pipe, and into a chamber in the pump. A one-way valve closes after water is pumped into the chamber, keeping the water from flowing back down into the well. Subsequent pumps of the piston pull more water into the chamber, which eventually overflows, spilling water out of a spout. Centrifugal pumps use motor-driven propellers that create a flow of water when they rotate. The blades of the propeller are immersed in the water to be pumped. As the propeller turns, water enters the pump near the axis of the blades and is swept out toward their ends at high pressure. An alternative, early version of the centrifugal pump, the screw pump, consists of a corkscrewshaped mechanism in a pipe that, when rotated, pulls water upward. Screw pumps are often used in waste-water treatment plants because they can move large amounts of water without becoming clogged with debris. In the ancient Middle East the need for irrigation of farmland was a strong inducement to develop a water pump. Early pumps in this region were simple devices for lifting buckets of water from a source to a container or a trench. Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes is thought to have devised the first screw pump in the 3rd century BC. Later, Greek inventor Ctesibius developed the first lift pump. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries AD, British engineer Thomas Savery, French physicist Denis Papin, and British blacksmith and inventor Thomas Newcomen contributed to the development of a water pump that used steam to power the pumps piston. The steam-powered water pumps first wide use was in pumping water out of mines. Modern-day examples of centrifugal pumps are those used at the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River. This pump system has the potential to irrigate over one million acres of land.4

Membrane (Latin membrana, parchment), in biology, any thin layer of connective tissue coating individual cells and organs of the body, or lining the joints and the ducts and tracts that open to the exterior of the body. The membrane surrounding single-celled animals and plants and 4"Water Pump," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

individual cells in multicellular organisms is important in the nutritive, respiratory, and excretory processes of these cells. Such cell membranes are semipermeable; that is, they allow the passage of small molecules, such as those of sugars and salts, but not large molecules, such as those of proteins. Structures inside cells, such as the nucleus, may also have membranes. Each organ in the animal body is surrounded by a membrane, extensions of which often anchor the organ to the body wall. Three membranes, known as meninges, surround the brain and spinal cord; the outermost is known as the dura mater, the middle layer as the arachnoid, and the innermost as the pia mater. Each lung is coated with a membrane known as a visceral pleura. The visceral pleurae anchor the lungs to the wall of the pleural cavity by extensions, known as the parietal pleurae, which line the cavity. The abdominal cavity is lined by a large membrane called the peritoneum, which is attached to the mesenteriesthe membranes coating the abdominal organs. A double membrane from the stomach, known as the omentum, hangs like an apron in the abdominal cavity and is interlaced with fat; the omentum is one of the major fat-storage areas of the body. The articular surfaces of bones making up a joint are lined with lubricating membranes. Small membrane sacs, or bursae, occur in the space between the bones of most joints. The hollow tracts, such as the respiratory and alimentary tracts, and the blood vessels and glandular ducts are lined with membranes. The membranes lining body cavities and coating organs are generally known as serous membranes because the cavities usually contain a serumlike fluid; the membranes lining joints are known as synovial membranes because they secrete synovial lubricating fluid; and the membranes lining the hollow tracts are known as mucous membranes because they secrete mucus. Inflammations of the membranes are assigned names by adding the suffix -itis to their anatomic name. In the field of artificial membrane technology, scientists today are interested in the development of structures that can function with the same selectivity and efficiency as exhibited by biological membranes in nature. Artificial membranes have been used for several years in science and industry. For example, they are employed in desalinization plants for removing salt from ocean water, and in the treatment of industrial wastewaters, in processes known as reverse osmosis. More closely biomimetic membranes can be produced through such techniques as dipping metal plates into liquids covered with monolayers of selected lipids. Among the specialized uses of biomimetic membranes is the timed release of pharmaceuticals into the body from ingested medicines or bandages applied to the body.5

Water Supply and Waterworks, provision of a supply of water for domestic, industrial, and irrigation needs, and the engineering installations necessary to treat and pump the water to the consumer (see Water). In the U.S. today, the average daily water consumption rate in populated

5"Membrane," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

areas ranges from 380 to 950 liters (100 to 250 gallons) per person per day, and extensive watertreatment plants are essential for providing water safe for human consumption. Sources of Water The ultimate source of all natural potable water on the earth is rain, which is rarely used as a direct source except on islands in salt water, such as Bermuda, where the rain is collected and led into cisterns to serve as the only available water supply. When rain falls, it runs off into streams, in the case of heavy rains, or soaks into the ground, percolating through porous strata until it reaches an impervious stratum, upon which it collects, forming groundwater. Groundwater is the source of wells and of the springs that feed streams, rivers, and lakes. In its course, groundwater dissolves soluble mineral matter, and often the surface waters of rivers and lakes are polluted by the influx of sewage or industrial wastes (see Sewage Disposal; Water Pollution). In modern water-supply systems, an entire watershed is usually made into a reservation to control pollution. The waters are impounded by a system of dams, and flow by gravity, or are pumped, to the local distribution system. The quality of water from these sources varies greatly. Surface waters generally contain larger quantities of turbidity and bacteria than groundwaters, but groundwater contains higher concentrations of dissolved chemicals. Seawater contains high concentrations of dissolved chemicals and some microscopic organisms as well. Because water quality does vary widely from source to source, the U.S. Public Health Service has established certain standards for drinking water used in interstate commerce. Similar water quality standards have been adopted by all the states and by the World Health Organization. In water being considered as a source for supply, these standards set the concentration levels of chemical compounds and bacteria that can be safely allowed in the treated water. Treatment Undesirable tastes and odors are removed from water by aeration. Bacteria are destroyed by the addition of a few parts per million of chlorine, and the taste of chlorine is then removed with sodium sulfite. Excessive hardness, which renders the water unsuitable for many industrial purposes, is reduced by the addition of slaked, or hydrated, lime or by an ion-exchange process using zeolite as a water softener. Suspended organic matter, which supports bacterial life, and suspended mineral matter are removed by the addition of a flocculating and precipitating agent, such as alum, before settling or filtration. Artificial fluoridation of public water is done in many U.S. communities as a measure for preventing dental caries. See Fluorine. History Early peoples had no need of engineering works to supply their water. Hunters and nomads camped near natural sources of fresh water, and populations were so sparse that pollution of the water supply was not a serious problem. After community life developed and agricultural villages became urban centers, the problem of supplying water became important for inhabitants of a city, as well as for irrigation of the farms surrounding the city. Irrigation works were known in prehistoric times, and before 2000 BC the rulers of Babylonia and Egypt constructed systems of dams and canals to impound the flood waters of the Euphrates and Nile rivers, controlling floods and providing irrigation water throughout the dry season (see Canal; Dam). Such irrigation canals also supplied water for domestic purposes. The first people to consider the sanitation of their

water supply were the ancient Romans, who constructed a vast system of aqueducts to bring the clean waters of the Apennine Mountains into the city and built settling basins and filters along these mains to ensure the clarity of the water (see Aqueduct). The construction of such extensive water-supply systems declined when the Roman Empire disintegrated, and for several centuries local springs and wells formed the main source of domestic and industrial water. The invention of the force pump in England in the middle of the 16th century greatly extended the possibilities of development of water-supply systems (see Pump). In London, in 1562, the first pumping waterworks was completed; it pumped river water to a reservoir about 37 m (about 120 ft) above the level of the Thames River and from the reservoir the water was distributed by gravity, through lead pipes, to buildings in the vicinity. The first municipal pumping station in the U.S. was erected about 1760 to supply water to the town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It consisted of a 13-cm (5-in) wooden pump that raised the water about 21 m (about 70 ft) through pipes made of bored hemlock logs. By 1800 some 16 U.S. cities had water-supply systems, and since that time almost every city and town in the country has been provided with municipal waterworks, most of them publicly owned and operated. In addition to the municipal systems, many state and federal developments provide water for irrigation, industrial, or domestic uses as a by-product of navigation control, hydroelectric-power generation, and flood control. See Electric Power Systems; Flood Control; Waterpower. Rapid growth of industry, increased population, and rising per-capita demand created a national water shortage in the U.S. in the 1950s. An official committee was established in 1954 by the provisions of the Water Facilities Act to recommend legislation for better control of existing supplies and the development of new sources. The reuse of water by industry, which consumes a large percentage of the nation's total supply, is encouraged by the government. Seawater Desalinization

In recent years a great deal of interest has been shown in the conversion of seawater to fresh water. Several different processes, including distillation, electrodialysis, reverse osmosis, and direct-freeze evaporation, have been developed for this purpose. Some of these processes have been used in large facilities. Distillation units, for example, are being used in Freeport, the Bahamas, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and in Texas. A reverse-osmosis system is used for the city of Bessie, Oklahoma, and an electrodialysis system is used for Port Mansfield, Texas. Although these processes are successful, the cost of treating seawater is much higher than that for treating fresh water.6

6"Water Supply and Waterworks," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Filtration, process of separating a suspended solid, such as a precipitate, from the liquid in which it is already suspended by straining it through a porous medium that can be penetrated easily by liquids. Filtration is a basic manufacturing process in the chemical-manufacturing industry and is also employed for such diverse purposes as the brewing of coffee, the clarification of sugar syrup, and the treatment of sewage. The liquid to be filtered is called the suspension; the liquid passed by the filter is called the filtrate; and the solid material remaining on the filter is known as the residue. Four general types of filtering media are employed in filtration processes: granular filters such as sand or crushed charcoal; felted sheet such as paper, or woven filters such as cloth and wire mesh; rigid, porous filters such as those formed when brick or clay is fired at a low temperature; and filters composed of semipermeable, or penetrable, membranes such as animal membranes. Filters of the last-named type are employed for the separation of dispersed solids by dialysis.7 on Exchange, in chemistry, method of exchanging ions in a solution with ions of the same charge in certain insoluble substances. By this means chemicals can be removed from a solution that contains large amounts of other chemicals. This is done by passing the solution through porous solid materials, usually minerals of the zeolite group or specially prepared synthetic resins (plastics) containing large, complex molecules. Certain ions in the solution replace ions or groups of ions in the resin or zeolite, from which they can then be eluted, or washed out. By controlling the acidity, strength, and composition of the solution and the nature of the resin, ions in solution are more or less selectively exchanged for the labile (exchangeable) ions that are in the resin. Hardness in water, caused by calcium and magnesium ions, which form insoluble compounds, is removed by ion exchange. The water is filtered through an artificial zeolite, such as Permutite,

7"Filtration," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

and the sodium in the zeolite replaces the undesirable ions that are in the water. When the zeolite is saturated with these metallic ions, it is washed with salt solution, which restores the sodium. Ion-exchange methods have been used to great advantage in the hitherto almost impossible separation of the various rare earth elements and in the separation of plutonium from uranium and fission products in research on nuclear fuels. Ion-exchange techniques contributed to the first identification and separation of the rare earth element promethium, as well as several of the transuranium elements. The element hafnium, used in the manufacture of tungsten filaments, has been separated from zirconium by ion-exchange methods more successfully than by any other chemical-separation methods. Synthetic ion-exchange resins are employed extensively as filters and conditioners for automobile radiators and other cooling systems. They are also widely used in the pharmaceutical field as antacids for the treatment of peptic ulcers, as intestinal adsorbents for diarrhea control, and as sodium reduction agents in the treatment of migraine headache, heart disease, and edema. In other applications the resins are used for the removal of clot-producing calcium from whole blood in the preparation of blood plasma and for the isolation of antibiotics.8 Sewage Disposal, or wastewater disposal, various processes involved in the collection, treatment, and sanitary disposal of liquid and water-carried wastes from households and industrial plants. The issue of sewage disposal assumed increasing importance in the early 1970s as a result of the general concern expressed in the United States and worldwide about the wider problem of pollution of the human environment, the contamination of the atmosphere, rivers,

lakes, oceans, and groundwater by domestic, municipal, agricultural, and industrial waste. See Air Pollution; Water Pollution.

8"Ion Exchange," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

History Methods of waste disposal date from ancient times, and sanitary sewers have been found in the ruins of the prehistoric cities of Crete and the ancient Assyrian cities. Storm-water sewers built by the Romans are still in service today. Although the primary function of these was drainage, the Roman practice of dumping refuse in the streets caused significant quantities of organic matter to be carried along with the rainwater runoff. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, below-ground privy vaults and, later, cesspools were developed. When these containers became full, sanitation workers removed the deposit at the owner's expense. The wastes were used as fertilizer at nearby farms or were dumped into watercourses or onto vacant land. A few centuries later, there was renewed construction of storm sewers, mostly in the form of open channels or street gutters. At first, disposing of any waste in these sewers was forbidden, but by the 19th century it was recognized that community health could be improved by discharging human waste into the storm sewers for rapid removal. Development of municipal water-supply systems and household plumbing brought about flush toilets and the beginning of modern sewer systems. Despite reservations that sanitary sewer systems wasted resources, posed health hazards, and were expensive, many cities built them; by 1910 there were about 25,000 miles of sewer lines in the United States. At the beginning of the 20th century, a few cities and industries began to recognize that the discharge of sewage directly into the streams caused health problems, and this led to the construction of sewage-treatment facilities. At about the same time, the septic tank was introduced as a means of treating domestic sewage from individual households both in suburban and rural areas. Because of the abundance of diluting water and the presence of sizable social and economic problems during the first half of the 20th century, few municipalities and industries provided wastewater treatment. During the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. government encouraged the prevention of pollution by providing funds for the construction of municipal waste-treatment plants, water-pollution research, and technical training and assistance. New processes were developed to treat sewage, analyze wastewater, and evaluate the effects of pollution on the environment. In spite of these efforts, however, expanding population and industrial and economic growth caused the pollution and health difficulties to increase. In response to the need to make a coordinated effort to protect the environment, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was signed into law on January 1, 1970. In December of that year, a new independent body, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created to bring under one roof all of the pollution-control programs related to air, water, and solid wastes. In 1972 the Water Pollution Control Act Amendments expanded the role of the federal government in water pollution control and significantly increased federal funding for construction of wastetreatment works. Congress has also created regulatory mechanisms and established uniform effluent standards. Transport of Wastewater Wastewater is carried from its source to treatment facility pipe systems that are generally classified according to the type of wastewater flowing through them. If the system carries both domestic and storm-water sewage, it is called a combined system, and these usually serve the older sections of urban areas. As the cities expanded and began to provide treatment of sewage,

sanitary sewage was separated from storm sewage by a separate pipe network. This arrangement is more efficient because it excludes the voluminous storm sewage from the treatment plant. It permits flexibility in the operation of the plant and prevents pollution caused by combined sewer overflow, which occurs when the sewer is not big enough to transport both household sewage and storm water. Another solution to the overflow problem has been adopted by Chicago, Milwaukee, and other U.S. cities to reduce costs: instead of building a separate household sewer network, large reservoirs, mostly underground, are built to store the combined sewer overflow, which is pumped back into the system when it is no longer overloaded. Households are usually connected to the sewer mains by clay, cast-iron, or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes 8 to 10 cm (3 to 4 in) in diameter. Larger-diameter sewer mains can be located along the centerline of a street or alley about 1.8 m (about 6 ft) or more below the surface. The smaller pipes are usually made of clay, concrete, or asbestos cement, and the large pipes are generally of unlined or lined reinforced-concrete construction. Unlike the water-supply system, wastewater flows through sewer pipes by gravity rather than by pressure. The pipe must be sloped to permit the wastewater to flow at a velocity of at least 0.46 m per sec (1.5 ft per sec), because at lower velocities the solid material tends to settle in the pipe. Storm-water mains are similar to sanitary sewers except that they have a much larger diameter. Certain types of sewers, such as inverted siphons and pipes from pumping stations, flow under pressure, and are thus called force mains. Urban sewer mains generally discharge into interceptor sewers, which can then join to form a trunk line that discharges into the wastewater-treatment plant. Interceptors and trunk lines, generally made of brick or reinforced concrete, are sometimes large enough for a truck to pass through them. Nature of Sewage The origin, composition, and quantity of waste are related to existing life patterns. When waste matter enters water, the resulting product is called sewage or wastewater. Origin and Quantity Wastewater originates mainly from domestic, industrial, groundwater, and meteorological sources, and these forms of wastewater are commonly referred to as domestic sewage, industrial waste, infiltration, and storm-water drainage, respectively. Domestic sewage results from people's day-to-day activities, such as bathing, body elimination, food preparation, and recreation, averaging about 227 liters (about 60 gallons) per person daily. The quantity and character of industrial wastewater is highly varied, depending on the type of industry, the management of its water usage, and the degree of treatment the wastewater receives before it is discharged. A steel mill, for example, might discharge anywhere from 5700 to 151,000 liters (about 1500 to 40,000 gallons) per ton of steel manufactured. Less water is needed if recycling is practiced. Infiltration occurs when sewer lines are placed below the water table or when rainfall percolates down to the depth of the pipe. It is undesirable because it imposes a greater load on the piping system and the treatment plant. The amount of storm-water drainage to be carried away depends on the amount of rainfall as well as on the runoff or yield of the watershed (see Drainage).

A typical metropolitan area discharges a volume of wastewater equal to about 60 to 80 percent of its total daily water requirements, the rest being used for washing cars and watering lawns, and for manufacturing processes such as food canning and bottling. Composition The composition of wastewater is analyzed using several physical, chemical, and biological measurements. The most common analyses include the measurements of solids, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and pH. The solid wastes include dissolved and suspended solids. Dissolved solids are the materials that will pass through a filter paper, and suspended solids are those that do not (see Filtration). The suspended solids are further divided into settleable and nonsettleable solids, depending on how many milligrams of the solids will settle out of 1 liter of wastewater in 1 hour. All these classes of solids can be divided into volatile or fixed solids, the volatile solids generally being organic materials and the fixed solids being inorganic or mineral matter. The concentration of organic matter is measured by the BOD5 and COD analyses. The BOD5 is the amount of oxygen used over a five-day period by microorganisms as they decompose the organic matter in sewage at a temperature of 20 C (68 F). Similarly, the COD is the amount of oxygen required to oxidize the organic matter by use of dichromate in an acid solution and to convert it to carbon dioxide and water. The value of COD is always higher than that of BOD 5 because many organic substances can be oxidized chemically but cannot oxidize biologically. Commonly, BOD5 is used to test the strength of untreated and treated municipal and biodegradable industrial wastewaters. COD is used to test the strength of wastewater that is either not biodegradable or contains compounds that inhibit activities of microorganisms. The pH analysis is a measure of the acidity of a wastewater sample (see Acids and Bases). Typical values of solids and BOD5 for domestic wastewater are given in the accompanying table. The organic matter in typical domestic sewage is approximately 50 percent carbohydrates, 40 percent protein, and 10 percent fat; the pH can range from 6.5 to 8.0.

The composition of industrial waste cannot be readily characterized by a typical range of values because its makeup depends on the type of manufacturing process involved. The concentration of an industrial waste is usually placed in perspective by stating the number of people, or population equivalent (PE), that would be required to produce the same quantity of waste. PE is most commonly expressed in terms of BOD5. An average value of 0.077 kg (0.17 lb) 5-day, 20 C BOD per person per day is used for determination of the PE. The population equivalent of a slaughterhouse operation, for example, will range from 5 to 25 PE per animal. The composition of infiltration depends on the nature of the groundwater that seeps into the sewer. Storm-water sewage contains significant concentrations of bacteria, trace elements, oil, and organic chemicals.

Wastewater Treatment The processes involved in municipal wastewater treatment plants are usually classified as being part of primary, secondary, or tertiary treatment. Primary Treatment The wastewater that enters a treatment plant contains debris that might clog or damage the pumps and machinery. Such materials are removed by screens or vertical bars, and the debris is burned or buried after manual or mechanical removal. The wastewater then passes through a comminutor (grinder), where leaves and other organic materials are reduced in size for efficient treatment and removal later. Grit Chamber In the past, long and narrow channel-shaped settling tanks, known as grit chambers, were used to remove inorganic or mineral matter such as sand, silt, gravel, and cinders. These chambers were designed to permit inorganic particles 0.2 mm (0.008 in) or larger to settle at the bottom while the smaller particles and most of the organic solids that remain in suspension pass through. Today, spiral-flow aerated grit chambers with hopper bottoms, or clarifiers with mechanical scrapper arms, are most commonly used. The grit is removed and disposed of as sanitary landfill. Grit accumulation can range from 0.08 to 0.23 cu m (3 to 8 cu ft) per 3.8 million liters (about 1 million gallons) of wastewater. Sedimentation With grit removed, the wastewater passes into a sedimentation tank, in which organic materials settle out and are drawn off for disposal. The process of sedimentation can remove about 20 to 40 percent of the BOD5 and 40 to 60 percent of the suspended solids. The rate of sedimentation is increased in some industrial waste-treatment stations by incorporating processes called chemical coagulation and flocculation in the sedimentation tank. Coagulation is the process of adding chemicals such as aluminum sulfate, ferric chloride, or polyelectrolytes to the wastewater; this causes the surface characteristics of the suspended solids to be altered so that they attach to one another and precipitate. Flocculation causes the suspended solids to coalesce. Coagulation and flocculation can remove more than 80 percent of suspended solids. Flotation An alternative to sedimentation that is used in the treatment of some wastewaters is flotation, in which air is forced into the wastewater under pressures of 1.75 to 3.5 kg per sq cm (25 to 50 lb per sq in). The wastewater, supersaturated with air, is then discharged into an open tank; there the rising air bubbles cause the suspended solids to rise to the surface, where they are removed. Flotation can remove more than 75 percent of the suspended solids. Digestion Digestion is a microbiological process that converts the chemically complex organic sludge to methane, carbon dioxide, and an inoffensive humuslike material. The reactions occur in a closed tank or digester that is anaerobicthat is, devoid of oxygen. The conversion takes place through a series of reactions. First the solid matter is made soluble by enzymes, then the substance is fermented by a group of acid-producing bacteria, reducing it to simple organic acids such as

acetic acid. The organic acids are then converted to methane and carbon dioxide by bacteria. Thickened sludge is heated and added as continuously as possible to the digester, where it remains for 10 to 30 days and is decomposed. Digestion reduces organic matter by 45 to 60 percent. Drying Digested sludge is placed on sand beds for air drying. Percolation into the sand and evaporation are the chief processes involved in the dewatering process. Air drying requires dry, relatively warm weather for greatest efficiency, and some plants have a greenhouselike structure to shelter the sand beds. Dried sludge in most cases is used as a soil conditioner; sometimes it is used as a fertilizer because of its 2 percent nitrogen and 1 percent phosphorus content. Secondary Treatment Having removed 40 to 60 percent of the suspended solids and 20 to 40 percent of the BOD5 in primary treatment by physical means, the secondary treatment biologically reduces the organic material that remains in the liquid stream. Usually the microbial processes employed are aerobic that is, the organisms function in the presence of dissolved oxygen. Secondary treatment actually involves harnessing and accelerating nature's process of waste disposal. Aerobic bacteria in the presence of oxygen convert organic matter to stable forms such as carbon dioxide, water, nitrates, and phosphates, as well as other organic materials. The production of new organic matter is an indirect result of biological treatment processes, and this matter must be removed before the wastewater is discharged into the receiving stream. Several alternative processes are also available in secondary treatment, including a trickling filter, activated sludge, and lagoons. Trickling Filter In this process, a waste stream is distributed intermittently over a bed or column of some type of porous medium. A gelatinous film of microorganisms coats the medium and functions as the removal agent. The organic matter in the waste stream is absorbed by the microbial film and converted to carbon dioxide and water. The trickling-filter process, when preceded by sedimentation, can remove about 85 percent of the BOD5 entering the plant. Activated Sludge This is an aerobic process in which gelatinous sludge particles are suspended in an aeration tank and supplied with oxygen. The activated-sludge particles, known as floc, are composed of millions of actively growing bacteria bound together by a gelatinous slime. Organic matter is absorbed by the floc and converted to aerobic products. The reduction of BOD5 fluctuates between 60 and 85 percent. An important companion unit in any plant using activated sludge or a trickling filter is the secondary clarifier, which separates bacteria from the liquid stream before discharge. Stabilization Pond or Lagoon Another form of biological treatment is the stabilization pond or lagoon, which requires a large land area and thus is usually located in rural areas. Facultative lagoons, or those that function in mixed conditions, are the most common, being 0.6 to 1.5 m (2 to 5 ft) in depth, with a surface area of several acres. Anaerobic conditions prevail in the bottom region, where the solids are

decomposed; the region near the surface is aerobic, allowing the oxidation of dissolved and colloidal organic matter (see Colloid). A reduction in BOD5 of 75 to 85 percent can be attained. Advanced Wastewater Treatment If the receiving body of water requires a higher degree of treatment than the secondary process can provide, or if the final effluent is intended for reuse, advanced wastewater treatment is necessary. The term tertiary treatment is often used as a synonym for advanced treatment, but the two methods are not exactly the same. Tertiary, or third-stage, treatment is generally used to remove phosphorus, while advanced treatment might include additional steps to improve effluent quality by removing refractory pollutants. Processes are available to remove more than 99 percent of the suspended solids and BOD5. Dissolved solids are reduced by processes such as reverse osmosis and electrodialysis. Ammonia stripping, denitrification, and phosphate precipitation can remove nutrients. If the wastewater is to be reused, disinfection by ozone treatment is considered the most reliable method other than breakpoint chlorination. Application of these and other advanced waste-treatment methods is likely to become widespread in the future in view of new efforts to conserve water through reuse. See Absorption; Osmosis; Precipitation. Liquid Disposal The ultimate disposal of the treated liquid stream is accomplished in several ways. Direct discharge into a receiving stream or lake is the most commonly practiced means of disposal. In areas of the United States that are faced with worsening shortages of water for both domestic and industrial use, municipalities and state and federal agencies are turning to reuse of appropriately treated wastewater for groundwater recharge, irrigation of nonedible crops, industrial processing, recreation, and other uses. Many reuse projects are located in California, Arizona, and Texas. The first large-scale wastewater-reclamation plant in the United States is the Denver Water Department's Potable Reuse Demonstration Plant. The one-million-gallon-per-day plant was built to demonstrate the quality, reliability, and economic potential of reuse on a large scale. The quality and health-effects testing program, ended in 1993, after successfully meeting its goal of producing drinkable water from reclaimed water. The reused water was tested against the regular drinking water received by Denver residents and found to be equally drinkable. The treatment process involves conventional primary and secondary treatment followed by lime clarification to remove suspended organic compounds. During this process, an alkaline (high-pH) condition is created to improve the process. In the next step, recarbonation is used to bring the pH level to neutral. Then the water is filtered through multiple layers of sand and charcoal, and ammonia is removed by ionization. Pesticides and any other dissolved organic materials still present are absorbed by a granular, activated-carbon filter. Viruses and bacteria are then killed by ozonization. At this stage the water should be cleansed of all contaminants, but, for added reliability, second-stage carbon adsorption and reverse osmosis are used, and chlorine dioxide is added to attain the highest possible water standard. Similar reuse programs are underway in the southwestern United States, Saudi Arabia, and the Netherlands. Septic Tank A sewage treatment process commonly used to treat domestic wastes is the septic tank: a concrete, cinder block or metal tank where the solids settle and the floatable materials rise. The partly clarified liquid stream flows from a submerged outlet into subsurface rock-filled trenches through which the wastewater can flow and percolate into the soil where it is oxidized aerobically.

The floating matter and settled solids can be held from six months to several years, during which they are decomposed anaerobically. See Also Solid Waste Disposal. Contributed By: Jerry Y.C. Huang Reviewed by: Gabor M. Karadi9

Fluid Mechanics, physical science dealing with the action of fluids at rest or in motion, and with applications and devices in engineering using fluids. Fluid mechanics is basic to such diverse fields as aeronautics (see Airplane; Aviation), chemical, civil, and mechanical engineering (see Engineering), meteorology, naval architecture (see Ships and Shipbuilding), and oceanography (see Ocean and Oceanography). Fluid mechanics can be subdivided into two major areas, fluid statics, which deals with fluids at rest, and fluid dynamics, concerned with fluids in motion. The term hydrodynamics is applied to the flow of liquids or to low-velocity gas flows where the gas can be considered as being essentially incompressible. Aerodynamics is concerned with the theory of flight, and compressible fluid flow or gas dynamics with the behavior of gases under flow conditions, where velocity and pressure changes are sufficiently large to require inclusion of the compressibility effects. Applications of fluid mechanics involve all kinds of flow machinery, including jet propulsion, hydraulics, turbine, compressors, and pumps (see Compressed Air; Pump). Hydraulics mainly concerns machines and structures such as hydraulic turbines, dams, and hydraulic pressures, using water or other liquids. Fluid Statics or Hydrostatics

A fundamental characteristic of any fluid at rest is that the force exerted on any particle within the fluid is the same in all directions. If the forces were unequal, the particle would move in the direction of the resultant force. It follows that the force per unit area, or the pressure exerted by the fluid against the walls of an arbitrarily shaped containing vessel, is perpendicular to the interior walls at every point. If the pressure were not perpendicular an unbalanced tangential force component would exist and the fluid would move along the wall. This concept was first formulated in a slightly extended form by the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal in 1647. Known as Pascals law, it states that the pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted equally in all directions and to all parts of the enclosing vessel, if

9"Sewage Disposal," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

pressure changes due to the weight of the fluid can be neglected. This law has extremely important applications in hydraulics. The top surface of a liquid at rest in an open vessel will always be perpendicular to the resultant forces acting on it. If gravity is the only force, the surface will be horizontal. If other forces in addition to gravity act, then the free surface will adjust itself. For instance, if a glass of water is spun rapidly about its vertical axis, both gravity and centrifugal forces will act on the water and the surface will form a parabola that is perpendicular to the resultant force. If gravity is the only force acting on a liquid contained in an open vessel, the pressure at any point within the liquid is directly proportional to the weight of a vertical column of that liquid. This, in turn, is proportional to the depth below the surface and is independent of the size or shape of the container. Thus the pressure at the bottom of a pipe about 2.5 cm (about 1 in) in diameter and about 15 m (about 50 ft) high that is filled with water is the same as the pressure at the bottom of a lake about 15 m (about 50 ft) deep. Similarly, a pipe about 30 m (about 100 ft) long that is filled with water, and slanted so that the top is only about 15 m (about 50 ft) above the bottom vertically, will have the same pressure exerted at the bottom of the pipe even though the distance along the pipe is much longer. The weight of a column of fresh water about 30 cm (about 12 in) high and with a cross section of about 6.5 sq cm (about 1 sq in) is about 0.196 kg (about 0.433 lb) and this will be the pressure exerted at the bottom. A column about 30 cm (about 12 in) high and about 0.093 sq m (about 1 sq ft) in cross section will weigh 144 times as much, but the pressure, which is force per unit area, will remain identical. The pressure at the bottom of a mercury column about 30 cm (about 12 in) high will be 0.196 13.6 = 2.07 kg per 6.5 sq cm (1 sq in) as mercury is 13.6 times as heavy as water. See Also Atmosphere; Barometer. The second important principle of fluid statics was discovered by the Greek mathematician and philosopher Archimedes. The so-called Archimedes principle states that a submerged body is subject to a buoyancy force that is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by that body. This explains why a heavily laden ship floats; its total weight equals exactly the weight of the water that it displaces, and this weight exerts the buoyant force supporting the ship. A point at which all forces producing the buoyant effect may be considered to act is the center of buoyancy and is the center of gravity of the fluid displaced. The center of buoyancy of a floating body is directly above its center of gravity. The greater the distance between these two, the more stable the body. See Stability. Archimedes principle also makes possible the determination of the density of an object that is so irregular in shape that its volume cannot be measured directly. If the object is weighed first in air and then in water, the difference in weights will equal the weight of the volume of the water displaced, which is the same as the volume of the object. Thus the weight density of the object (weight divided by volume) can readily be determined. In very high precision weighing, both in air and in water, the displaced weight of both the air and water has to be accounted for in arriving at the correct volume and density. Fluid Dynamics or Hydrodynamics This branch of fluid mechanics deals with the laws of fluids in motion; these laws are considerably more complex and, in spite of the greater practical importance of fluid dynamics, only a few basic ideas can be discussed here.

Interest in fluid dynamics dates from the earliest engineering application of fluid machines. Archimedes made an early contribution by his invention of the screw pump, the pushing action of which is similar to that of the corkscrewlike device in a meat grinder. Other hydraulic machines and devices were developed by the Romans, who not only used Archimedes screw for irrigation and mine pumping but also built extensive aqueduct systems, some of which are still in use. The Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius invented the horizontal waterwheel during the 1st century BC, which revolutionized corn milling. Despite the early practical applications of fluid dynamics, little or no understanding of the basic theory existed, and development lagged accordingly. After Archimedes, more than 1800 years elapsed before the next significant scientific advance was made by the Italian mathematician and physicist Evangelista Torricelli, who invented the barometer in 1643, and formulated Torricellis law, which related the efflux velocity of a liquid through an orifice in a vessel to the liquid height above it. The major spurt in the development of fluid mechanics had to await the formulation of Newtons laws of motion by the English mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton. These laws were applied to fluids first by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, who derived the basic equations for a frictionless, or inviscid, fluid. Euler first recognized that dynamical laws for fluids can only be expressed in a relatively simple form if the fluid is assumed incompressible and ideal, that is, if the effects of friction or viscosity can be neglected. Because, however, this is never the case for real fluids in motion, the results of such an analysis can only serve as an estimate for those flows where viscous effects are small. Incompressible and Inviscid, or Frictionless, Flows These flows follow Bernoullis principle, named after the Swiss mathematician and scientist Daniel Bernoulli. The principle states that the total mechanical energy of an incompressible and inviscid flow is constant along a streamline. Streamlines are imaginary flow lines that are always parallel to the local direction of the flow, and that for steady flow are also the lines followed by individual fluid particles. Bernoullis principle leads to an interrelationship between pressure effects, velocity effects, and gravity effects, and indicates that the velocity increases as the pressure decreases. This principle is important in nozzle design and in flow measurements. Viscous Flows, Laminar and Turbulent Motion The first carefully documented friction experiments in low-speed pipe flow were carried out independently in 1839 by the French physiologist Jean Leonard Marie Poiseuille, who was interested in the characteristics of blood flow, and in 1840 by the German hydraulic engineer Gotthilf Heinrich Ludwig Hagen. An attempt to include the effects of viscosity into the mathematical equations was made first in 1827 by the French engineer Claude Louis Marie Navier, and independently by the British mathematician Sir George Gabriel Stokes, who in 1845 perfected the basic equations for viscous incompressible fluids. These are now known as the Navier-Stokes equations, and they are so complex that they can be applied only to simple flows. One such flow is that of a real fluid through a straight pipe. Here Bernoullis principle is not applicable because part of the total mechanical energy is dissipated as a result of viscous friction, resulting in a pressure drop along the pipe. The equations suggest that this pressure drop for a given pipe and a given fluid should be linear with the flow velocity. Experiments first conducted near the middle of the 19th century showed that this was only true for low velocities; at higher velocities, the pressure drop was more nearly proportional to the square of the velocity. This

problem was not resolved until 1883 when the British engineer Osborne Reynolds showed the existence of two types of viscous flows in pipes. At low velocities the fluid particles follow the streamlines (laminar flow) and results match the analytical prediction. At higher velocities the flow breaks up into a fluctuating velocity pattern or eddies (turbulent flow) in a form that cannot be fully predicted even today. Reynolds also established that the transition from laminar to turbulent flow was a function of a single parameter that has since become known as the Reynolds number. If the Reynolds number, which is the product of velocity, fluid density, and pipe diameter, divided by the fluid viscosity, is less than 2100, the pipe flow will always be laminar; at higher values it will normally be turbulent. The concept of a Reynolds number is basic to much of modern fluid mechanics. Turbulent flows cannot be evaluated solely from computed predictions and depend on a mixture of experimental data and mathematical models for their analysis, with much of modern fluidmechanics research still being devoted to better formulations of turbulence. The transitional nature from laminar to turbulent flows and the complexity of the turbulent flow can be observed as cigarette smoke rises into very still air. At first it rises in a laminar streamline motion but after some distance it becomes unstable and breaks up into an intertwining eddy pattern. Boundary Layer Flows Before about 1860 the engineering interest in fluid mechanics was limited almost entirely to water flows. The development of the chemical industry during the latter part of the 19th century directed attention to other liquids and to gases. Interest in aerodynamics began with the studies of the German aeronautical engineer Otto Lilienthal in the last decade of the 19th century and saw major advances following the first successful powered flight by the American inventors Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1903. The complexity of viscous flows, especially turbulent flows, severely restricted progress in fluid dynamics until the German engineer Ludwig Prandtl recognized in 1904 that many flows could be divided into two principal regions. The region close to the surface consists of a thin boundary layer where the viscous effects are concentrated and where the mathematical model can be greatly simplified. Outside the boundary layer viscous effects can be disregarded and the simpler mathematical equations for inviscid flows can be used. The boundary-layer theory has made possible much of the development of modern aircraft wings and the design of gas turbines and compressors. The boundary-layer model not only permitted a much simplified formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations in the region close to the body surface but also led to further developments of the flow of inviscid fluids that can be applied outside the boundary layer. Much of the modern development of fluid mechanics was made possible by the boundary-layer concept and it has been carried out by such key contributors as the Hungarian-born American aeronautical engineer Theodore von Krmn, and the German mathematician Richard von Mises, by the British physicist and meteorologist Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor. Compressible Flows Interest in compressible flows started with the development of steam turbines by the British inventor Charles Algernon Parsons, and the Swedish engineer Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval during the 1880s. Here high-speed flow of steam within flow passages was first encountered and the need for efficient turbine design led to improved compressible flow analyses. Modern advances, however, had to wait for the stimulus of successful gas turbine and jet engine development in the 1930s. The early interest in high-speed flows over surfaces arose in the study of ballistics, for

which an understanding of the motion of projectiles was needed. Major developments started near the end of the 19th century, involving Prandtl and his students, among others, and increased after the introduction of high-speed aircraft and rockets (see Rocket) in World War II. One of the basic principles of compressible flows is that the density of a gas changes when the gas is subjected to large velocity and pressure changes. At the same time its temperature also changes, leading to more complex means of analysis. The flow behavior of a compressible gas depends on whether the flow velocity is smaller or greater than the velocity of sound. The velocity of sound is the name given to the propagation velocity of a very small disturbance, or pressure wave, within the fluid. For a gas it is proportional to the square root of the absolute temperature. For instance, air at 20 C, or 293 on the Kelvin, or absolute, scale (68 F), has a sound velocity of 344.65 m per sec (1130 ft per sec). If the flow velocity is less than the sound velocity (subsonic flow), pressure waves can be transmitted throughout the whole fluid to adjust the flow that rushes toward an object. Thus the subsonic flow approaching an airplane wing will adjust itself some distance upstream to flow smoothly over the surface. In supersonic flow, pressure waves cannot travel upstream to readjust the flow. As a result, the air rushing toward a wing in supersonic flight will not be prepared for the impending disturbance the wing will cause. Instead, it has to redirect very suddenly in the proximity of the wing, where a sharp compression or shock is coupled with the redirection. The noise associated with this sudden shock causes the sonic boom of aircraft flying at supersonic speeds. Compressible flows are often identified by the Mach number, which is the ratio of the flow velocity divided by the sound velocity. Supersonic flows therefore have a Mach number greater than 1. Contributed By: Fred Landis10

10"Fluid Mechanics," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.