THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING: LEVEL ( I ) EXAMINATION

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CIVL1012 Environmental Engineering and Fluid Mechanics

DATE: May 8, 2009 (Friday) TIME: 9:30am- 12:30pm ( 3 hours)

Sections A and B carry 50 marks each. Use a separate answer book for each section.

Use of Electronic Calculators:

Candidates may use any calculator which fulfils the following criteria:
(a) it should be self-contained, silent, battery-operated and pocket-sized;
(b) it should have numeral-display facilities only and should be used only for the purpose
of calculation;
(c) it should not have any printing device, alphanumeric keyboard, or graphic display; and
(d) it should not contain any recorded data or program.

It is the candidate's responsibility to ensure that the calculator operates satisfactorily and the
candidate must record the name and type of the calculator on the front page of the
examination scripts. Lists of permitted/prohibited calculators will not be made available to
candidates for reference, and the onus will be on the candidate to ensure that the calculator
used will not be in violation of the criteria listed above.

Section A (Environmental Engineering)

Answer ANY (and NO more than) 25 out of the following 30 questions.

Each question carries two marks.

1. If 100 mg of H2S04 (MW=98) is added to water, bring the final volume to 1 L, the final
pH is: (a) 5.25, (b) 2.69, (c) 4.17, or (d) 10.67.
2. Which of the following is NOT true? (a) only Ca2+ and Mg2+ contribute to the hardness of
water, (b) equivalent weight equals to the substance's atomic weight divided by n, its
valence or ionic charge, (c) alkalinity is a measure of the water's ability to absorb
hydrogen ions without significant pH change, or (d) carbonate hardness (CH) can be
removed by simply heating the water.
3. The concentration of C02 in water is 1x 10"5 M. The Henry's constant for C02 dissolution
in water is 3.91 x 10"2 M/atm. The partial pressure of C02 in the air is: (a) 2.56 x10 4 atm,
(b) 3.54 x 104 atm, (c) 5.76 x 104 atm, or (d) 1.23 x 104 atm.
4. The theoretical oxygen demand of 108.75 mg/L of glucose C6H1206 is: (a) 61.2 mg!L, (b)
200.4 mg/L, (c) 78 mg/L, or (d) 116 mg/L. (Atomic weights are: H 1, C 12, 0 16)
5. A storm sewer is carrying 1.2 g/L of NaCl into a stream. The stream has a naturally
occurring NaCl concentration of 20mg/L. If the storm sewer flow rate is 2000 L!min and
the stream flow rate is 2.0 m3/sec, what is the concentration of salt in the stream after the
discharge point (assuming that the sewer flow and the stream flow are completely mixed,
that the salt is a conservative substance, and the system is at steady state)? (a) 39.3 mg/L,
(b) 50.4 mg/L, (c) 78.6 mg/L, or (d) 100.6 mg/L.
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6. Groundwater is the water contained in the: (a) unsaturated zone, (b) saturated zone, (c)
vadose zone, or (d) zone of aeration
7. Which of the following sources of nutrients (primarily nitrogen and phosphorus) is NOT a
non-point source pollution: (a) stormwater discharge, (b) agricultural runoff, (c)
municipal sewage, or (d) soil erosion.
8. NOx is a crucial air pollutant resulting mainly from the combustion of fossil fuel. Which
of the following statements about NOx is false? The formation of NOx may be affected
by (a) the size of the combustion chamber, (b) the combustion temperature, (c) the air-
fuel ratio, or (d) the N content in fossil fuel.
9. A convective kerosene heater is tested in a well-mixed 27 m3 chamber having an air
exchange rate of 0.39 air exchanges per hour. After one hour of operation, the NO
concentration reached 4. 7 ppm. Treating NO as a conservative pollutant, what is the NO
source strength of the heater (in mg/hr)? (a) 210 mg-NO/hr, (b) 200 mg-NO/hr, (c) 190
mg-NO/hr, or (d) 180 mg-NO/hr.
10. For the above question, estimate the NO concentration that would be expected in the
chamber one hour after turning off the heater: (a) 2.8 ppm, (b) 3.0 ppm, (c) 3.2 ppm, or
(d) 3.4 ppm.
11. The Air Pollution Index, also known as Pollution Standards Index, is reported each day by
the media in Hong Kong. Which of the following parameters is irrelevant to the
calculation of Air Pollution Index? (a) nitrogen dioxide, (b) carbon dioxide, (c) ozone, or
(d) particulate matter.
12. Rotating biological contactor (RBC) is a (a) physical treatment process, (b) biological
treatment process, (c) chemical treatment process, or (d) sludge disposal process.
13. The presence of multivalent cations, most notably calcium and magnesium ions, is
referred to as water hardness. Water softening process is mostly relying on adding
chemicals which may precipitate these two cations in the forms of: (a) CaC03 and
MgC03, (b) Ca(OH)2 and Mg(OH)2, (c) CaC03 and Mg(OH)2, or (d) Ca(OH)2 and
MgC03.
14. For a wastewater having a BODs of 200 mg/L and an ultimate BOD of 300 mg/L, what is
its first order reaction rate constant (in base of natural log)? (a) 0.14 day" 1, (b) 0.17 day" 1,
(c) 0.22 day" 1, or (d) 0.25 day" 1
15. Calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+) and aluminum (Ae+) are among the most common
cations found in groundwater. Which of the following waters has the highest degree of
hardness as expressed by CaC0 3 equivalent? Water (a) containing 150 mg/1 of Ca2+, or
(b) containing 100 mg/1 of Ca2+ and 50 mg/1 of Mg2+, or (c) containing 45 mg/1 of Ca2+,
45 mg/1 ofMg2+ and 45 mg/1 of Ae+, or (d) containing 50 mg/1 ofMg2+ and 100 mg/1 of
Ae+. (Atomic weights are: Ca 40; Mg 24.3; and Al27.)
16. The US Department of Energy reports that the consumption of energy is 85X 10 18 J/yr.
The average fuel source used for calculation has the chemical composition of C2H3 and
the energy content of 43 X106 J/kg. If the fuel source is comrletely combusted, at what
rate would C0 2be emitted? (a) 6.45X 10 12 kg/yr, (b) 8.45X 10 1 kg/yr, (c) 3.25X 10 12 kg/yr,
(d) 2.5X 106 kg/yr.
17. Which of the following contribute the least to the dissolved oxygen depletion in a river?
(a) sewage discharge, (b) respiration of organisms, (c) respiration of aquatic plants, or (d)
reaeration from the atmosphere.
18. In a water treatment plant, which of the following is in the right order of treatment? (a)
sedimentation ---+ coagulation ---+ filtration ---+ disinfection, (b) coagulation ---+ filtration ---+
disinfection ---+ sedimentation, (c) coagulation ---+ sedimentation ---+ filtration ---+
disinfection, or (d) sedimentation ---+ coagulation ---+ disinfection--+ filtration.
19. What is the major source of CO emissions? (a) transportation, (b) plant, (c) human, or (d)
industrial.
20. In wastewater treatment plant, which of the following is in the right order? (a)
disinfection ---+ screening ---+ primary settling ---+ activated sludge process ---+ secondary
settling, (b) screening ---+ primary settling ---+ activated sludge process ---+ secondary
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 settling ---. disinfection, (c) screening ---. activated sludge process ---. primary settling ---.
secondary settling ---. disinfection, or (d) primary settling ---. activated sludge process ---.
screening.
21. Natural rainwater has a pH: (a) between 7 to 8, (b) between 5 to 6, (c) between 3 to 4, or
(d) between 8 to 9.
22. What is the percentage that oceans hold in the stock of water on Earth? (a) 100%, (b)
97%, (c) 60% or (d) 45.5%.
23. Suppose the exhaust gas from an automobile contains 1.0 percent by volume of carbon
monoxide (CO). The concentration of CO at 25C, 1 atm is: (a) 11,874 mg/L, (b) 11,445
mg/L, (c) 14,355 mg/L, (d) 8,000 mg/L.
24. The pH of an industrial wastewater is 9. The hydroxide ion concentration is: (a) 5 x 10"5
mol/L, (b) 1 x 10"9 mol/L, (c) 4 x 1o-8 mol/L, (d) 1 x 1o-s mol/L.
25. Which ofthe following is NOT a characteristic of a hazardous material? (a) ignitable, (b)
corrosive, (c) reactive, (d) explosive.
26. For water pollutants, which of the following is NOT true? (a) pathogens associated with
water include bacteria, protozoa, viruses, and helminthes, (b) oxygen-demanding wastes,
as a major category of waster pollutants, are substances that oxidize in the receiving body
of water, (c) nutrients are essential to the growth ofliving things, and therefore it is not in
the water pollutant list, (d) volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are among the most
commonly found contaminants in groundwater.
27. Suppose world carbon emission are expressed as the following product:
carbon emission = (energy/person) x (carbon/energy) x (population)
If per capita energy demand increases at 1.5% per year, fossil fuel emissions of carbon per
unit energy increases at 1% per year, and world population grows at 1% per year, how
long would it take before we are emitting carbon at twice the current rate? (a) 17.3 yrs, (b)
43.5 yrs, (c) 55.3 yrs, (d) 4.5 yrs.
28. For problem 27, at that point, by what fraction would per capita energy demand have
increased? (a) 10%, (b) 20%, (c) 30%, (d) 40%.
29. For problem 27, at that point, by what fraction would total energy demand have increased?
(a) 30%, (b) 40%, (c) 60%, (d) 70%.
30. The effluent quality of a conventional secondary wastewater treatment plant has been
determined in the laboratory as follows: (a) COD = 8 mg/L, (b) BODs = 30 mg/L, (c)
suspended solids = 30 mg/L, and (d) ammonia nitrogen = 2.5 mg!L. Which value is most
probably incorrect?

Section B (Fluid Mechanics)

Answer TWO questions out of THREE.

Each question carries 25 marks.

1. (a) In the flow of a liquid over a V -notch weir, the discharge Q is related to the discharge
head H (which is the height of the liquid level above the base of the V -notch). The
other physical quantities in the flow problem are the V -notch angle B, the gravitational
acceleration g, and fluid properties including the density p, the dynamic viscosity J.i
and the surface tension a: Use dimensional analysis to reduce the flow problem into a
relationship involving dimensionless Pi groups. (7 marks)

(b) Discuss the physical meanings of the dimensionless Pi groups. How will the
discharge Q depend on the discharge head H if the other dimensionless Pi groups are
fixed. (6 marks)

(c) A V -notch weir has been calibrated for the measurement of water flow. One
calibration point is that at a head of 0.08 m, the water discharge was 0.05 m3Is.
Now, the weir is to be used for the measurement of discharge of a viscous oil

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 having a kinematic viscosity 1.5 x 1o-6 m21s. What will be the corresponding head
and discharge values for the oil flow having the complete similarity as the water
flow at that particular calibration point? Neglect the effect of surface tension. Take
the kinematic viscosity of water at 0.9 x 10"6 m21s. (12 marks)

2. (a) There is a pressure loss of 300 kNim 2 when water is pumped through pipeline A at
a rate of 2 m3Is and there is a pressure loss of 250 kNim 2 when water is pumped
at a rate of 1.4 m 3Is through pipeline B. Calculate the pressure loss which will
occur when 1.5 m31s of water are pumped though pipes A and B jointly if they are
connected (i) in series, (ii) in parallel, assuming that junction losses may be
neglected. In the latter case calculate the volume rate of flow through each pipe.
(10 marks)

(b) A two-dimensional ridge has the shape of a Rankine half-body under a wind speed
of 10 m/s. The ridge rises to a final height of 31.416 m. Calculate the wind speed
U and the wind angle a at point A which is located at 40 m from the hill of the
ridge and 40 m elevation (above the level ground). (15 marks)

x=40m

3. (a) Name one instrument for each of the following measurements:

(i) wind speed in the field;
(ii) fluctuating flow velocity inside a wind tunnel;
(iii) discharge of water in an open channel. (3 marks)

(b) The following instruments can be used for discharge measurement in a circular
p1pe:
(i) venture meter;
(ii) orifice plate;
(iii) rotameter.
Briefly describe their measurement principle and discuss their advantages and
disadvantages. (7 marks)

(c) A horizontal water main comprises 1500 m of 150 mm diameter pipe followed by
900 m of 100 mm diameter pipe, the friction factor /for each pipe being 0.028.
All the water is drawn off at a uniform rate per unit length along the pipe. If the
total input to the system is 0.025 m31s, find the total pressure drop along the main,
neglecting all losses other than pipe friction. Also draw the hydraulic gradient
taking the pressure head at inlet as 54 m. (15 marks)

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