Fitting a BOD curve for variable values of ‘k’ under

different temperature conditions

Dr. Nadim Reza Khandaker

Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, North South University, Dhaka

CEE373.2

Spring 2023
Part 1: Finding BODu

In order to find BODu, the curve was drawn in order to find the highest point, plugging the

values of time and BOD5 provided.

Fig: BOD5 vs time plot

So, BODu=41. Point to be noted that the squared value for the correlation coefficient ‘r’ is,

R2 = 0.989. This value is important to keep the variation closest possible afterwards.
Part 2: Finding K20 for BODT20

Now, in order to find K20 for T = 20°, we shall have to use the equation,

BODT 20=BODu ( 1−e

−k 20 t
) ….(i)

By plugging it in the equation of each cell in the spreadsheet in excel, we get the following table

by fitting the curve, through iteration for K20,

Time BOD5 BODT20

0 0 0

2 10 14.8572

4 25 24.3306

6 30 30.3711

8 35 34.2227

10 38 36.6786

15 39 39.5971
 Fig: BODT20 vs time curve

By plugging in these values, we get, K20 = 0.225. After plotting the curve, we also notice that our

R2 = 0.9866 which is very close to our previous one.

Part 3: Finding K30 using Arrhenius equation

In order to find K30 for T = 30°, we will use the Arrhenius equation:

−E a

k = A e RT

We know that the activation energy (Ea) for water = 18 KJ/mole [1]. We use that to first find the

Arrhenius constant (A) for this particular scenario by using the Omni Calculator [2] :

Fig: Finding the value of ‘A’ at T = 20° using Omni calculator

As we can see, the value of A = 362.6. We further use this value at T = 30° to find our K30 using

the omni calculator again:

Fig: Finding the value of ‘K30’ at T = 30° using Omni calculator

As we can see, our desired value for K30 = 0.28706 or, 0.287 upto 3 decimal places.
Part 4: Fitting the BODT30 curve

In order to verify the K30 value, we shall have to now fit the BODT30 curve like before to get the

values of BODT30 using spreadsheet in excel and using formula (i):

Time BOD5 BODT20 BODT30

0 0 0 0

2 10 14.8572 17.906

4 25 24.3306 27.9919

6 30 30.3711 33.673

8 35 34.2227 36.8729

10 38 36.6786 38.6753

15 39 39.5971 40.4465

We see that, the R2 = 0.972 which is very close to our previous one. Hence, we can conclude that

all our procedure and assumed data are okay.

Therefore, our final finding,

k at 30° C = 0.287

References

1. Activation energy of the self -diffusion of water in compacted clay systems: a case study

with opalinus clay - Mills 1973, Fripiat et al.

2. Omni Calculator: https://www.omnicalculator.com/chemistry/arrhenius-equation