A Laboratory Study of Buoyant Coarse Media Flocculation
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- September 6, 2019
- Creator
-
Nix, James E.
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
- Abstract
- In water treatment, flocculation is the unit operation in which destabilized particles are given the opportunities to collide with each other and aggregate into floc. Traditionally the mixing necessary for these collisions has been mechanically induced: mechanical mixers in the flocculation basins create velocity gradients in the water being flocculated and the conditions for the agglomeration of particles. However, the energy imparted to a water being flocculated does not necessarily have to come from mechanical mixing. Hydraulic flocculation is also widely used for the purpose of inducing velocity gradients. Hydraulic flocculation occurs when the turbulence in the water is not the result of mechanical action, but rather of the hydraulic design of the flocculator. The advantages of hydraulic flocculators are that there is less mechanical equipment and less maintenance than with mechanical flocculators, and performance is good at constant flow rates. The disadvantages of traditional hydraulic flocculators are a relatively high head loss and the difficulty of adjusting the system to changing flow rates. A pilot plant study of buoyant coarse media (BCM) flocculation was conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to determine the feasibility and possible applications of this process. BCM flocculation is a type of hydraulic flocculation in which passage of water through a bed of media provides the turbulence necessary for floe formation. As destabilized particles pass around the media, eddies in the pore spaces between the media create the turbulence needed for particle collisions and flocculation.
- Date of publication
- May 1992
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Francisco, Donald E.
- Aitken, Michael
- Singer, Philip
- Degree
- Master of Science in Environmental Engineering
- Academic concentration
- Water Resources Engineering
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 1992
- Language
- Deposit record
- c2589085-57f7-4434-bf45-a2666ba162b9
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