H2 O

CE4003
Water Treatment

Hydraulics of Filtration

CE4003 -Water Treatment

H2 O Filtration Hydraulics
• Filter Design
– Very empirical
• Modelling Removal
– Need pilot plant tests
– No generally applicable models
• Head loss and backwashing
– Some things can be predicted
– Need pilot tests for effect of deposition

CE4003 -Water Treatment

H2 O Head Loss in a Clean Filter
Kozeny Equation (Kozeny-Carmen)

Hagen-Poiseuille Equation

Hydraulic radius

For a filter
Hydraulic radius = pore volume/grain surface area

CE4003 -Water Treatment

H2 O Hydraulic radius for a Filter
Consider unit volume of filter
Pore volume = 
V : volume of one grain
A : surface area of one grain
N : number of grains per unit volume

Solid volume = 1-

Total Grain surface = NA

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H2 O Kozeny Equation

K is a constant, typically about 4-5

For spheres of diameter dg

If sphericity is 

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H2 O Kozeny Equation

Valid for Reynolds number less than 10

For a uniform bed of depth L

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H2 O Stratified bed

d1 p1L

d2 p2L

dn pnL

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H2 O Alternative form of Kozeny Equation

ff : friction factor

Ergun equation

Stratified bed

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H2 O Example 1
Data: Kozeny Equation
L 0.67 m
K 4.5
 0.00102 Nms-2
 998.2 kgm-3
g 9.81ms-2
0 0.4
 0.85 Ergun Equation
dg 0.0004 m
u 0.001389 ms-1

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H2 O Backwashing
Backwashing fluidises the bed
Head loss counterbalanced by effective weight of bed

A : X-sectional area
Le : Expanded depth of bed
e : porosity of expanded bed
g : density of grains
Effective weight of fluidised bed = effective weight of packed bed

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H2 O Backwashing
Pressure = force per unit area

Using the Ergun equation

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H2 O Alternative Procedure
Fair & Geyer

Porosity of expanded bed can be related to settling velocity vt

Need to calculate terminal settling velocity

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H2 O Example
Data: Ergun Equation
L 0.67 m
K 4.5 u = 0.008887 ms-1
 0.00102 Nms-2 = 32 mh-1
 998.2 kgm-3
g 9.81ms-2 Fair & Geyer
0 0.4
u = 0.009879 ms-1
 0.85 = 35.6 mh-1
dg 0.0004 m
u 0.001389 ms-1
g 2650 kgm-3
e 0.65

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H2 O Design Considerations
• Aim for expanded bed porosity of 0.6 to 0.7
• Expanded depth 1.2 to 1.55 times original
• Ensure no loss of media
• Choose size and densities in multimedia to
minimize intermixing.
• Loading Rates
– < 8 g Al/(m2h)
– < 6 g Al/(m2h) for low alkalinity water

CE4003 -Water Treatment

H2 O Loading Rates
• Often expressed in terms of
– g Al/(m2h)
• Filter loading = coagulant dose x filtration rate
• 1 g/m3 Al = 6.3 g/m3 Al2(SO4)3

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H2 O Stratified Bed - Backwashing
• Minimum fluidisation velocity
– Calculate fluidisation velocity for each fraction
– Take maximum value
• Bed Expansion
– Calculate expanded bed length for each fraction
– Add up values

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H2 O Example

Packed bed porosity = 0.42 Backwash velocity 40 m/h

Packed bed depth = 0.70 m
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H2 O Minimum fluidisation velocity
Maximum fluidisation velocity will be for largest grains

Put e=0.42

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H2 O Bed Expansion
Backwash velocity = 40 m/h =0.01111 m/s

Size 0.78
Fraction 18%
vt 0.135 m/s
L0 = 0.18 x 0.70 = 0.126 m
Expanded porosity

Expanded bed length

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H2 O Bed Expansion
Size 0.66
Fraction 59%
vt 0.115 m/s
L0 = 0.59 x 0.70 = 0.413 m
Expanded porosity

Expanded bed length

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H2 O Bed Expansion
Size 0.55
Fraction 23%
vt 0.095 m/s
L0 = 0.23 x 0.70 = 0.161 m
Expanded porosity

Expanded bed length

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H2 O Totals

Expanded bed depth = 0.173 + 0.596 + 0.248 = 1.017

Expanded porosity

Expanded depth ratio

CE4003 -Water Treatment