Air–Water Mass Transfer on a Stepped Waterway
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 10
Abstract
Stepped waterways are commonly used as river training, debris dam structures, storm water systems, and aeration cascades. The present study was focused on analysis of basic air–water flow properties on a low gradient stepped chute, combined with dissolved oxygen measurements. The oxygen aeration efficiency was found to be about 30% for 12 steps with a total drop in invert elevation of , nearly independently of the inflow conditions. Detailed air–water flow measurements, including void fraction, velocity, bubble count rate, and interface area, were used to integrate the mass transfer equation and to estimate the aeration potential of the waterway. Direct comparisons with dissolved oxygen measurements showed good agreement between the two methods.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers acknowledge the assistance of Graham Illidge and Dr. John Macintosh, and the support of the Department of Civil Engineering.
References
American Public Health Association, American Water Works Association, and Water Pollution Control Federation (APHA/AWWA/WPCF). (1989). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 7th Ed.
Apted, R. W., and Novak, P. (1973). “Oxygen uptake at weirs.” Proc., 15th IAHR Congress, Vol. 1, Istanbul, Turkey, 177–186.
Avery, S. T., and Novak, P. (1978). “Oxygen transfer at hydraulic structures.” J. Hydraul. Div., Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 104(11), 1521–1540.
Barrett, M. G., Gameson, L. H., and Ogden, C. G. (1960). “Aeration studies at four weir systems.” Water Water Eng.September, 407–413.
Butts, T. A., and Evans, R. L. (1983). “Small stream channel dam aeration characteristics.” J. Environ. Eng., 109(3), 555–573.
Chanson, H. (1997). “Measuring air–water interface area in supercritical open channel flow.” Water Res., 31(6), 1414–1420.
Chanson, H. (2001). The hydraulics of stepped chutes and spillways, Balkema, Lisse, The Netherlands.
Chanson, H. (2002). “Air–water flow measurements with intrusive, phase-detection probes: Can we improve their interpretation?.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 128(3), 252–255.
Chanson, H., and Toombes, L. (2002). “Experimental study of gas-liquid interfacial properties in a stepped cascade flow.” Environ. Fluid Mech., 2(3), 241–263.
Department of the Environment (1973). “Aeration of weirs.” Notes on water pollution, No. 61, Water Research Lab., Elder Way, Stevenage, Herts, U.K.
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). (1957). “Oxygen balance in surface waters.” Water pollution research, DSIR, U.K., 12–21.
Essery, I. T. S., Tebbutt, T. H. Y., and Rasaratnam, S. K. (1978). “Design of spillways for reaeration of polluted waters.” CIRIA Rep. No. 72, January, London.
Foree, E. G. (1976). “Reaeration and velocity prediction for small streams.” J. Environ. Eng. Div. (Am. Soc. Civ. Eng.), 102(5), 937–952.
Gameson, A. L. H. (1957). “Weirs and the aeration of rivers.” J. Inst. Water Eng., 11, 477–490.
Gulliver, J. S. (1990). “Introduction to air–water mass transfer.” Proc., 2nd Int. Symp. on Gas Transfer at Water Surfaces, Air–Water Mass Transfer, S. C. Wilhelms and J. S. Gulliver, eds., ASCE, Minneapolis, 1–7.
Holler, A. G. (1971). “The mechanism describing oxygen transfer from the atmosphere to discharge through hydraulic structures.” Proc., 14th IAHR Congress, Vol. 1, Paper A45, Paris, 372–383.
Kawase, Y., and Moo-Young, M. (1992). “Correlations for liquid-phase mass transfer coefficients in bubble column reactors with Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids.” Can. J. Chem. Eng., 70, 48–54.
Mastropiertro, M. A. (1968). “Effects of dam reaeration on waste assimilation capacities of the Mohawk River.” Proc., 23rd Industrial Waste Conf., Engineering Extension Series, No. 132, Part 2, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, Ind., 754–765.
Nakasone, H. (1987). “Study of aeration at weirs and cascades.” J. Environ. Eng., 113(1), 64–81.
Tebbutt, T. H. Y. (1972). “Some studies on reaeration in cascades.” Water Res., 6, 297–304.
Tebbutt, T. H. Y., Essery, L. T. S., and Rasaratnam, S. K. (1977). “Reaeration performance of stepped cascades.” J. Inst. Water Eng., 31(4), 285–297.
Toombes, L. (2002). “Experimental study of air-water flow properties on low-gradient stepped cascades.” PhD thesis, The Univ. of Queensland, Queensland, Australia.
Watson, C. C., Walters, R. W., and Hogan, S. A. (1998). “Aeration performance of low drop weirs.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 124(1), 65–71.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 10 • October 2005
Pages: 1377 - 1386
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 27, 2004
Accepted: Nov 29, 2004
Published online: Oct 1, 2005
Published in print: Oct 2005
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.