CFD MODELLING OF PARTICLE TRANSPORT AND BIOLOGICAL

REACTIONS IN A MIXED WASTEWATER TREATMENT VESSEL

MATTHEW BRANNOCK, TONY HOWES AND MIKE JOHNS
School of Engineering, The University of Queensland, Queensland, 4072, Australia
E-mail: matthewb@cheque.uq.edu.au
BOB DE CLERCQ
Department of Applied Mathematics, Biometrics and Process Control, Ghent University, B-9000,
Belgium
E-mail: bob.declercq@biomath.rug.ac.be
J RG KELLER
Advanced Wastewater Management Centre, The University of Queensland, Queensland, 4072,
Australia
E-mail: j.keller@awmc.uq.edu.au
The biological reactions utilised to remove pollutants from the wastewater occur primarily within socalled bio-catalytic particles. These biocatalysts are suspended and subsequently transported, along
with soluble reactants, through the reactor vessels. The transport of particles and reactants, and the
resulting pollutant removal rates, are governed by the hydrodynamics, which is determined by the
reactor design. Current methods of designing treatment vessels are largely based on empirical and
heuristic techniques. This makes it difficult to predict how vessel design (e.g. size and position of
inlets, baffles or mixers) affects hydrodynamics, hence overall performance. Computational Fluid
Dynamics (CFD) provides a method for prediction of the effect these features have on the
hydrodynamics from a fundamental level. The CFD model developed here couples hydrodynamics
with scalar transport equations that predict particle and reactant transport. Comparison of the CFD
model with an extensive set of point velocity measurements and tracer studies is made.

Introduction

Current methods of designing wastewater treatment vessels are largely based on empirical
and heuristic techniques. This makes it difficult to predict how vessel design (e.g. size
and position of inlets, baffles or mixers) affects hydrodynamics, hence overall
performance. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) provides a method for prediction of
the effect these features have on the hydrodynamics from a fundamental level. The
biological reactions utilised to remove pollutants from the wastewater occur primarily
within bio-catalytic particles.
The CFD model developed here couples the
hydrodynamics with scalar transport equations that predict particle and reactant transport.
Biochemical reactions are included as source/sink terms in the latter equations.
A real-scale system is used for calibration and validation of the model. The system
used for this purpose is an anoxic section of a bioreactor located at the Luggage Point
Wastewater Treatment Facility, Brisbane, Australia. In this part of the reactor nitrate is
biologically converted to nitrogen gas, through consumption of soluble carbon species.
The dimensions of the channel are shown in Figure 1. It is mixed by three 1.5kW Flygtt
propeller-like mixers directed about 25 degrees clock-wise from the channels
longitudinal axis. Each mixer has propeller blades 0.3 metres in diameter and are
positioned 0.5 metres above the channel floor.

Figure 1. Diagram of wastewater treatment channel being modelled.

Methods

The CFD model is composed of the core hydrodynamic model along with the sludge and
species, i.e. reactants, transport models. Figure 2 below outlines how the different fields
of knowledge are interconnected in the model.

Figure 2. Schematic of model components showing influences.

All these transport processes can be described by a general conservation equation [1]:
3
3

( ) + (u j ) = + S
t

j =1

x j

j =1

x j

x j

where is the flow variable, uj is flow velocity in the j-th direction, is the diffusive
coefficient, is the local density and S is the source/sink term of the flow variable. The
solution of these transport equations depends on the specification of boundary conditions
(i.e. free-surface, walls, inlet and outlet). The equations are solved in Fluent 5 (Fluent
Inc., UK) with the finite volume method [2]. A practical approach to solve turbulent
hydrodynamics is to consider the time-averaged flow field. Then, the Reynolds-averaged
Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are obtained. By averaging, a correlation term between
fluctuating velocity components arises. To calculate this, the commonly used standard k turbulence model is incorporated. The influence of the mixers is included as a
momentum source.
The sludge transport model component describes the movement of bio-catalytic
particles. Sludge concentration gradients affect fluid movement by buoyancy. Hence, to
predict the correct sludge concentration profile the conservation equation for sludge (its
concentration being the transport quantity ) includes sedimentation, i.e. incorporation of

a settling flux within the vertical convection term. Due to high concentrations of sludge
the so-called hindered particle settling velocity can be described by the Vesilind function
[3]:
u S = u o e rh C S
where uS is the settling velocity, uO is the maximum settling velocity, rh is the hindered
settling zone parameter and CS is the local sludge concentration. The necessary
parameters were experimentally determined (data not shown).
The species transport model describes the movement of the soluble carbon substrate,
and nitrate through the system. These species are the most relevant under anoxic
conditions. Again the general conservation equation is used where the transport quantity
is the species concentration. The sources/sinks for these species rely on simplified
kinetic reaction equations from the Activated Sludge Model Number 1 [4]. The latter is
commonly used in wastewater treatment modelling.
3

Results

The first validation exercise compares fluid velocities. The determination coefficient R2
for the magnitude of velocities between the CFD model and the real system is 0.74. This
value is good considering experimental error and model limitations due to process
simplification. Other similar CFD studies show coefficients between measured and
simulated velocities that are much lower. In this respect, Peterson [5] only obtained a
determination coefficient of 0.52.
To validate the flow field, the residence time distribution (RTD) can be used also.
The latter expresses the frequency of fluid elements spending different periods of time
inside the vessel. Experiments were conducted in twofold to measure the RTD; the
nitrate recycle was turned off. A good comparison is found between the simulated and
experimentally determined RTDs. The correlation coefficient was greater than 0.94. To
demonstrate that the CFD model is sensitive to channel operation, Figure 3 shows RTD
simulations for different cases.

Non-dimensional concentration (C')

1.0

Simulation - same config as experiments

Experiment 1: R2 = 0.993

0.8

Experiment 2: R2 = 0.946
0.6

Simulation - mixers turned off

Simulation - nitrate recycle on

0.4

0.2

0.0
0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

Non-dimensional time (t')

Figure 3. Comparison between measured and simulated RTD results (maximum of the mixer turned off
simulation at (t,C) = (0.22,2.7) not shown).

The validated CFD model can be subsequently used for an investigation into how
design affects channel performance. The results shown in Figure 4 demonstrate how
turning off Mixer 1 might affect sludge suspension. The conversion of nitrate along the
length of the channel is shown also.

0.5

Nitrate Conversion (fraction)

Recycle Nitrate 1 mg/L

Recycle Nitrate 2 mg/L

0.4

Recycle Nitrate 5 mg/L

Recycle Nitrate 10 mg/L

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

Reactor Length Position (m)

Figure 4. a) Iso-surface of an arbitrary sludge concentration of 3.05g/L and b) Nitrate Conversion along the
length of the reactor at different recycle inlet nitrate concentrations.

From Figure 4a) it is evident that Mixer 1 being inoperable encourages a build up of
sludge in the first section. This part of the channel is largely stagnant and proper
suspension of biocatalyst particles does not take place. Figure 4b) shows that the inlet
area is well-mixed, after which a channeling effect takes place in the stagnant zone.
This first section appears to act like a plug-flow reactor (due to channeling next to a
stagnant zone) where most consumption of nitrate takes place until it becomes rate limited
in the second section.
4

Conclusions

The results, from both the point velocity and RTD comparisons, indicate that the
presented CFD model is able to simulate realistic conditions. It is now possible to
investigate how vessel design affects the hydrodynamics quickly and easily through the
use of the developed CFD model.
Acknowledgements
The Authors wish to thank Brisbane Water for a number of reasons. Firstly, for making
available tracer studies they performed at their facility, secondly, for allowing access to
their Luggage Point facility for further validation experiments, and thirdly, for their
support during these experimental undertakings.
References
1. EN.REFLIST