CFD Study of Effect of Particles on Flow Patterns and Separation in Settling Tank
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 149, Issue 1
Abstract
In the present work, the effects of particles on the flow patterns in settling tanks are studied with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with various nondrag forces. The CFD model is validated with radial velocity measured with ultrasonic velocity profiler and concentration profiles for a lab-scale settling tank and industrial settling tank. The effects of lift, turbulent dispersion, and particle-fluid interaction forces are investigated on the flow patterns. The effects of particle characteristics are also studied on the separation. It was observed that instead of monodispersed particles, particle size distribution should be incorporated in the CFD model for better prediction of the concentration profiles. The forces acting on the particle shift the recirculation pattern in the settling tank. Different particles with the same Archimedes number exhibited different flow patterns. Similar flow patterns and separation efficiency is predicted for different particles with similar terminal settling velocity.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, such as the data used to prepare Fig. 3.
Acknowledgments
Amol V. Ganjare (AVG) wishes to acknowledge Department of Atomic Energy—Institute of Chemical Technology (DAE-ICT) Center for Chemical Engineering Education and Research for providing a Ph.D. fellowship.
References
Abid, R. 1993. “Evaluation of two-equation turbulence models for predicting transitional flows.” Int. J. Eng. Sci. 31 (6): 831–840. https://doi.org/10.1016/0020-7225(93)90096-D.
Altinakar, M. S., N. Yildirim, S. Y. Kumcu, G. Tayfur, M. Gogus, M. A. Kokpinar, G. Bombar, S. A. Kantoush, and I. Albayrak. 2008. Comparison of ADVP and UVP in terms of velocity and turbulence measurements in a uniform flow. Çesme Izmir, Turkey: Kubaba Congress Dept., and Travel Services.
ANSYS Inc. 2013. Vol. 15 of ANSYS fluent theory guide, 465–572. Canonsburg, PA: ANSYS, Inc.
Burns, A. D., T. Frank, I. Hamill, and J. Shi. 2004. “The Favre averaged drag model for turbulent dispersion in Eulerian multi-phase flows.” In Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Multiphase Flow, ICMF’04 Yokohama. Tsukuba, Japan: International Conference on Multiphase Flow.
Chavan, P. V., D. V. Kalaga, and J. B. Joshi. 2009. “Solid-liquid circulating multistage fluidized bed: Hydrodynamic study.” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 48 (9): 4592–4602. https://doi.org/10.1021/ie8018627.
Deininger, A., F. W. Günthert, and P. A. Wilderer. 1996. “The influence of currents on circular secondary clarifier performance and design.” Water Sci. Technol. 34 (3): 405–412. https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.1996.0457.
Deininger, A., E. Holthausen, and P. A. Wilderer. 1998. “Velocity and solids distribution in circular secondary clarifiers: Full scale measurements and numerical modeling.” Water Res. 32 (10): 2951–2958. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0043-1354(98)00072-4.
Drew, D. A., and R. T. Lahey. 1987. “The virtual mass and lift force on a sphere in rotating and straining inviscid flow.” Int. J. Multiphase Flow 13 (1): 113–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-9322(87)90011-5.
Durve, A. P., and A. W. Patwardhan. 2012. “Numerical and experimental investigation of onset of gas entrainment phenomenon.” Chem. Eng. Sci. 73 (May): 140–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2012.01.030.
Ganjare, A. V., and A. W. Patwardhan. 2020. “CFD simulations of single-phase flow in settling tanks: Comparison of turbulence models.” Indian Chem. Eng. 62 (4): 413–426. https://doi.org/10.1080/00194506.2019.1677514.
Ganjare, A. V., and A. W. Patwardhan. 2022. “Analysis of flow and particle settling in continuous settling tank: CFD study.” Multiphase Sci. Technol. 34 (1): 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1615/MultScienTechn.2021039741.
Luna, F. D. T., A. G. Silva, N. K. Fukumasu, O. Bazan, J. H. A. Gouveia, D. Moraes, J. I. Yanagihara, and A. S. Vianna. 2019. “Fluid dynamics in continuous settler.” Chem. Eng. J. 362 (Apr): 712–720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.01.088.
Marle, C., and C. Kranenburg. 1994. “Effects of gravity currents in circular secondary clarifiers.” J. Environ. Eng. 120 (4): 943–960. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(1994)120:4(943).
Mei, R., and J. F. Klausner. 1994. “Shear lift force on spherical bubbles.” Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 15 (1): 62–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/0142-727X(94)90031-0.
Olivieri, S., F. Picano, G. Sardina, D. Iudicone, and L. Brandt. 2014. “The effect of the basset history force on particle clustering in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence.” Phys. Fluids 26 (4): 041704. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4871480.
Patziger, M. 2016. “Computational fluid dynamics investigation of shallow circular secondary settling tanks: Inlet geometry and performance indicators.” Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 112 (Aug): 122–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2016.06.018.
Poła, J., B. Mateusz, and K. Zbigniew. 2017. “Is magnus effect relevant for proppant settling in narrow fractures?” Energy Procedia 125 (Sep): 443–449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.08.097.
Saffman, P. G. 1965. “The lift on a small sphere in a slow shear flow.” J. Fluid Mech. 22 (2): 385–400. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112065000824.
Saffman, P. G. 1968. “The lift on a small sphere in a slow shear flow—Corrigendum.” J. Fluid Mech. 31 (3): 624. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022112068999990.
Sardeshpande, M. V., V. A. Juvekar, and V. V. Ranade. 2011. “Solid suspension in stirred tanks: UVP measurements and CFD simulations.” Can. J. Chem. Eng. 89 (5): 1112–1121. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjce.20548.
Schiller, L., and A. Naumann. 1933. “On the basic calculations of gravity processing.” Z. Ver. Ger. Ing. 77: 318–321.
Takeda, Y. 1995. “Velocity profile measurement by ultrasonic doppler method.” Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci. 10 (4): 444–453. https://doi.org/10.1016/0894-1777(94)00124-Q.
Troshko, A. A., and Y. A. Hassan. 2001. “A two-equation turbulence model of turbulent bubbly flows.” Int. J. Multiphase Flow 27 (11): 1965–2000. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0301-9322(01)00043-X.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 149 • Issue 1 • January 2023
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 12, 2021
Accepted: Aug 4, 2022
Published online: Nov 2, 2022
Published in print: Jan 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Apr 2, 2023
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.