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ABSTRACT
Aeration experiments, maintaining nappe flow conditions, were carried out on a rectangular Sanjib Moulick (corresponding author)
Naresh V. Tambada
stepped cascade of total height 3.0 m to determine the total number of steps, slope of the entire Basant K. Singh
B. C. Mal
cascade and hydraulic loading rate at which maximum overall aeration efficiency occurs, keeping Agricultural and Food Engineering Department,
the surface area of individual steps constant. Based on dimensional analysis, the overall aeration Indian Institute of Technology,
Kharagpur 721302,
efficiency at standard conditions (E20) was expressed as a function of square of total number of West Bengal,
India
steps (N 2) and dimensionless discharge (dc /h), where dc and h represent critical depth in a E-mail: sanjib_moulick72@yahoo.co.uk;
nareshtambada@gmail.com;
rectangular prismatic channel and individual step height respectively. An empirical equation with caubasant@gmail.com;
E20 as the response and N 2 and dc /h as the independent parameters was developed based on the bmal@agfe.iitkgp.ernet.in
experimental results subject to 36 # N2 # 196 and 0:009 # dc /h # 0.144. The experimental results
showed that the overall aeration efficiency (E20) for a particular step height of stepped cascade
increases with increase in dc /h up to a certain value and then decreases. This may be due to at
higher dc /h, i.e., at higher hydraulic loading rate, the flow approaches the transition zone and
thereby aeration efficiency decreases. E20 was also found to increase with number of steps at any
hydraulic loading rate, because of the increased surface area of fall. The optimum number of steps,
slope of the entire stepped cascade and hydraulic loading rate were found to be 14, 0.351 and
0.009 m2/s respectively producing the maximum value of overall aeration efficiency of 0.90.
Key words | aeration, air entrainment, hydraulic structure, stepped cascade, water treatment
INTRODUCTION
Aeration is a vital process in water and wastewater treatment allowed to flow as a thin film. During the fall of the water,
to transfer the oxygen from the gaseous to the liquid phase. bubbles rise up as air gets dragged in. Gas exchange occurs
Three methods are commonly used for aeration: (1) gravity between the air in these bubbles and the water. Oxygen
aeration, (2) mechanical aeration and (3) diffused air diffuses from the air into the water and helps to increase the
aeration. If site constraints and hydraulic conditions DO content of the water. Stepped cascades could be used to
permit gravity flow, the least costly method to raise dissolved reduce the dissolved nitrogen content. In the treatment of
oxygen (DO) levels is with the use of gravity aeration drinking water, cascade aeration is used for reoxygenation
(Tchobanoglous et al. 2003). Gravity aeration can be and removal of volatile organic components (VOC) such as
performed using a simple weir, an inclined corrugated methane and chlorine (Toombes & Chanson 2005), dissolved
sheet or a stepped cascade. Stepped cascades have been iron and manganese, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, as
used for a long time for the purpose of energy dissipation, well as the colour and tastes caused by volatile oils.
aeration or removal of volatile organic components (VOC) It is quite apparent that hydraulics plays a major role
particularly in case of dam spillway. The stepped cascade in stepped cascade flow affecting energy dissipation as well
basically consists of a series of steps over which the water is as oxygen transfer. Many research studies have been
doi: 10.2166/wst.2010.828
416 S. Moulick et al. | Aeration characteristics of a rectangular stepped cascade system Water Science & Technology—WST | 61.2 | 2010
conducted on stepped cascades. Chanson (1993, 1994, 1995, to avoid cavitation. However, no study has been attempted
1996), Chamani & Rajaratnam (1994), Chanson & Toombes in arriving at an optimal design criterion of a stepped
(1997), Ohtsu & Yasuda (1997), Chanson & Toombes (2002) cascade unit to be used as a pre- or post-aeration unit in
and Boes & Hager (2003) extensively worked on the potable or wastewater treatment. The present study is
hydraulic aspects of stepped cascade flow and were able intended to determine the optimum geometric and dynamic
to express a stepped cascade flow for various flow rates and parameters for a typical rectangular stepped cascade of total
different step geometries. According to them, a stepped height 3.0 m at which aeration efficiency is maximised.
cascade flow is characterised by a succession of free-falling
nappes (i.e., nappe flow) at low flow rates. At large flow
rates with identical chute geometry (step height, mean
slope), the water skims over the pseudo-invert formed by THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
the step edges (i.e., skimming flow). For a range of flow rates The aeration efficiency (ET) of any hydraulic structure at
in between, a transition flow pattern is observed. Because of any temperature T (8C) is expressed using the following
reported undesirable wave phenomena on stepped chutes Equation (Toombes & Chanson 2005):
that might be caused by hydrodynamic instabilities resulting
from a change from aerated to unaerated nappes in the ET ¼ ðC DS 2 C US Þ=ðC SAT 2 C US Þ ð1Þ
transition regime (Chanson 1994), the flow should be
where, CDS, CUS and CSAT represent dissolved oxygen
distinctly either in the nappe flow or the skimming flow
concentration at downstream, upstream and at saturation
regime for the design discharge and the safety check
respectively. To take into account of the temperature
flood (Boes & Hager 2003). Chanson & Toombes (1997)
dependence of the aeration efficiency, the following
conducted studies on stepped cascades simulating nappe
equation is used to find out the aeration efficiency at
and skimming flow and concluded that a small sloped
standard temperature of 208C (Gulliver et al. 1990).
stepped cascade operated at nappe flow might be an
effective means of water aeration. The study conducted E20 ¼ exp½lnðET Þ{1:0 þ 0:0210ðT 2 20Þ
ð2Þ
by Chanson & Toombes (2002) on (i) nappe flow without þ 0:0000826ðT 2 20Þ2 }21
hydraulic jump, (ii) transition flow and (iii) skimming flow
reconfirmed that effective aeration occurs at nappe flow only. where, E20 represents aeration efficiency at 208C, exp and ln
Further Baylar et al. (2007) confirmed that nappe flow represent exponential function and natural logarithm
regime leads to larger aeration efficiency when compared to respectively.
transition or skimming flow regime. Toombes & Chanson The study conducted by Chanson & Toombes (1997,
(2005) analysed basic air – water flow properties on a low 2002) showed that maximum aeration efficiency occurs at
gradient stepped cascade, combined with dissolved oxygen nappe flow only. Thus, in the present study nappe flow
measurements. The experimental results suggested that the condition was maintained following the equations as given
aeration efficiency on a stepped chute is a complex function by Chanson (2001):
of the step geometry (height, length) and inflow conditions
dc =h # 0:89 2 ðh=LÞ; 0:06 # ðh=LÞ # 1:8 and h . 0:2m ð3Þ
(depth, velocity, initial level of air entrainment) and it is
characterized by a high level of turbulence, which helps to where, dc/h ¼ dimensionless discharge, dc ¼ ðq2w =gÞ1=3
distribute the solute and maintain maximum concentration ¼ critical depth in a rectangular prismatic channel (m),
gradient at the surface, while a high level of air entrainment qw ¼ hydraulic loading rate (m 3/m/s), h ¼ height of steps
increases the interface area available for mass transfer. (m) and L ¼ length of step (m).
The primary focus of most of the available literatures on The aeration process for stepped cascade depends on
stepped spillway is to characterize the hydraulics based on step geometry, material properties and flow conditions. The
step geometry and hydraulic loading rate and adopt a variables which characterize the step geometry of a
particular design leading to high aeration efficiency in order rectangular stepped cascade are: length of the step (L),
417 S. Moulick et al. | Aeration characteristics of a rectangular stepped cascade system Water Science & Technology—WST | 61.2 | 2010
width of the step (W), height of the step (h) and total height processes in the shear region are dominated by viscous
of the aeration cascade (H). The material properties forces (Wood 1991). Chanson (2009) reported that one of
include: absolute roughness of step material (ks), density the three dimensionless numbers, i.e., F, R and W may be
of water (rw), density of air (ra), dynamic viscosity of water replaced by the Morton number, Mo ¼ gs4w =ðrw s3w Þ, which
(mw) and surface tension of water in contact with air (sw). becomes an invariant if same fluids are used in both
The flow conditions mainly depend on hydraulic loading prototype and model. Thus W can be replaced by Mo and
rate (qw) and acceleration due to gravity (g). A typical finally can be omitted from Equation (5) as it remains
line diagram showing the geometry of the steps is presented invariant. Moreover, the relevance of R was ignored
in Figure 1. because of the fact that the flow stands to be turbulent
Thus, the aeration efficiency of rectangular stepped always. The terms L/h and W/h can be combined to form
cascade can be expressed as follows: one dimensionless number—LW=h2 ¼ LWN 2 =H2 , where
N ¼ number of steps ¼ (H/h). As L, W and H were kept
E ¼ f 1 ðL; W; h; H; KS ; qw ; g; mw ; sw ; ra ; rw Þ ð4Þ constant for each set of experiments, E becomes a function
of N 2. The term (H/h) basically denotes the number of steps
Assuming h, rw and g to be repetitive variables and applying
(N). As the effect of N on E was already considered in the
Buckingham p theorem we get:
previous expression, this non-dimensional quantity was
ignored. Thus, Equation (5) may be rewritten as follows:
E ¼ f 2 ½ðL=hÞ; ðW=hÞ; ðKS =hÞ; ðH=hÞ; ðra =rw Þ; qw =ðgh Þ 3 1=2
;
ð5Þ
ðqw rw =mw Þ; s2w =ðgh2 rw Þ E ¼ f 3 ½N 2 ; dc =h ð6Þ
Parameters
2
i) Hydraulic loading rate (qw), m /s 0.001, 0.005, 0.009, 0.013 and 0.017 Overall aeration efficiency (E20)
ii) Height of each step (h), m 0.214, 0.25, 0.30, 0.375 and 0.50
iii) Length (L), m 0.61
iv) Width of step / channel (W), m 0.5
v) Total height of the stepped cascade (H), m 3.0
vi) Number of steps (N) 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14
Table 2 | Values of E20 at different step heights (h) and hydraulic loading rates (qw)