Water Treatment Technology

Dr. Jyoti Sahu

The Department of Chemical Engineering
NIT Trichy, Tamil Nadu

1
Lecture - 13

Filtration

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Head Loss Development in Gravity Filter

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 Negative head
▪ Head loss exceeds total depth of water

▪ Causes air pockets

▪ Filter cracks, head loss increase

▪ Deteriorate effluent quality

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Hydraulics of flow through porous Media
Flow through filter → Ground water flow

Darcy`s eqn. application

Laminar flow in clean filter bed

w.r.t. velocity through the pores increase

To maintain a constant rate → more and more head is required

When energy decrease → head loss – uneconomically large

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 Hydraulics of flow through porous Media
𝑓 `𝐿 1 − 𝑒 𝑉2
` 𝑠
ℎ𝑓 =
𝑒 3 𝑔𝑑𝑝

where, ℎ𝑓 ` − 𝐹𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑏𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒 𝑑𝑝, 𝑚

L - depth of filter, m

e – porosity of bed

Vs – filtering velocity, the velocity of the water just above the bed (total
flow Q to the filter divided by the area of the filter)
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 Hydraulics of flow through porous Media
𝑓 `𝐿 1 − 𝑒 𝑉2
𝑠
ℎ𝑓 ` =
𝑒 3 𝑔𝑑𝑝

where,
g – gravitational acceleration

𝑑𝑝 – diameter of filter media grains

1−𝑒
𝑓 ` = 150 + 1.75
𝑅𝑒

𝜙𝜌𝑤 𝑉𝑠 𝑑
𝑅𝑒 =
𝜇
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 Non uniform medium → Head loss

𝐿 1 − 𝑒 𝑉 2 𝑓𝑖𝑗 𝑥𝑖𝑗
` 𝑠
ℎ𝑓 = 3
෍
𝑒 𝑔 𝑑𝑖𝑗

where,

𝑥𝑖𝑗 – weight fraction between adjacent sieve size

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 How filter operates

1. Open valve A (influent flows into filter)

2. Open valve B (water flows though filter)

3. During filter operation all other valves are closed

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 How filter is backwashed
1. Close valve A

2. Close valve B

3. Open valves C and D (water flows from wash-water tank to flow through
filtering medium, loosening up the sand and washing the accumulated solids
from the surface of the sand, out of the filter. Filter backwash water is returned
to head end of treatment plant)

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 How to use filter waste (if used)
1. Open valves A and E. All other valves closed. Effluent is sometimes filtered to
waste for a few minutes after filter has been washed to condition the filter
before it is put into service.

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Rate Control Patterns and Methods
1. Constant pressure filtration

2. Constant rate filtration

3. Variable declining rate filtration

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 Driving force
Filter resistant

Constant Pressure
Filtration

Rate of filtration Declining Rate Filtration

Constant Rate
Filtration
Driving force
Filter resistant

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 Mixed Media Filters
Ideal filter → medium graded evenly

Large at top to small at bottom

Can be accomplished by using three or more types of media

E.g.,

▪ 60% anthracite – sp.gr 1.6 dp = 1.00 mm

▪ 30% silica – sp.gr 2.6

▪ 10 % garnet sand – sp.gr 4.2 dp = 0.15 mm

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 Coal

Depth
Sand

Pore size

Coal Depth

Mixture

Sand

Pore sizeSahu (CLPE24)

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 3ൗ
𝜌2 − 𝜌𝑙 2
𝑑1
ൗ𝑑 =
2 𝜌1 − 𝜌𝑙

Say,

sand size→ 0.5 mm ; Sp. gravity of sand = 2.65 mm;

Sp. gravity of Anthracite – 1.5; Sp. gravity of Garnet sand – 4.2

3ൗ
2.6 − 1 2

Depth
𝑑1 = 0.5 = 1.1 𝑚𝑚
1.5 − 1

3ൗ
2.6 − 1 2
𝑑1 = 0.5 = 0.3 𝑚𝑚
4.2 − 1
Pore size
Say,

sand → 0.5 mm ; Anthracite – 1.1 mm; Garnet sand – 0.3 mm

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 Dimension of Filter
L/B = 1.11 to 1.66

D = 2.6 m

Free board – 0.5 m

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 Filter Sand
▪ Hard and Resistant
▪ Effective size - 0.45 to 0.70
▪ Uniformity coefficient 1.3 – 1.7
▪ Ignition loss < 0.7 %
▪ Soluble fraction is HCl < 5% w
▪ Silica content > 90%
▪ Sp. Gr. – 2.5 – 2.65
▪ Wearing Loss < 3 %
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 Depth of Sand

High rate filtration → 0.6 to 0.75 m

Standing water depth → 1 to 2 m

Free board → 0.5 m

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 Filter Sand Preparation
▪ Sieve analysis

P1 = % of stock sand that is smaller than the effective size d1

P1 = 10 % of unusable sand

P2 = % of stock sand that is smaller than the desired 60 % percentile size d2

P3 = % suitable stock sand

= 2(P2 – P1) therefore % lying in between d1 & d2 = 50

P4 = % of sand with a diameter, below which it is too fine.

P4 = P1 – 0.1 P3 = P1 – 0.2 (P2 –P1) = 1.2 P1 - 0.2 P2

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 Filter Sand Preparation
P5 = % of sand with a particular diameter, above which too coarse.

= P2 + 0.4* 2 (P2 –P1) = P2 + 0.8 (P2 –P1)

Size cumulative frequency curve

P4, P5, d4 & d5 can be calculated

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 Under drainage system of filter

Manifold and lateral system

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 Backwashing

▪ Head loss reaches a limit

▪ Effluent quality becomes unacceptable

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 Fluidized Bed
Head loss hf, between the bottom and top of any layer of thickness Le  wt of
suspended material in water.
𝐻𝑓 . 𝜌𝑙 𝑔 = 𝐿𝑒 𝜌𝑠 − 𝜌𝑙 𝑔. 1 − 𝜀𝑒

Drag & gravity forces in equilibrium

𝜀𝑒 – porosity of expanded bed

2 2
𝐻𝑓 𝜌𝑠 − 𝜌𝑙 𝐾𝑒 𝜇 1 − 𝜀𝑒 6
= 1 − 𝜀𝑒 = . . 𝑌0
𝐿𝑒 𝜌𝑙 𝑔 𝜌𝑙 𝜀𝑒 2 𝜓𝑑
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 Fluidized Bed
𝜌𝑚 − 𝜌𝑤 𝜌𝑚 − 𝜌𝑤
𝐿 1−𝜀 . 𝑔 = 𝐿𝑓𝑏 1 − 𝜀𝑓𝑏 𝑔
𝜌𝑤 𝜌𝑤

𝐿 1 − 𝜀 = 𝐿𝑓𝑏 1 − 𝜀𝑓𝑏

1−𝜀
𝐿𝑓𝑏 = 𝐿
1 − 𝜀𝑓𝑏

𝜀𝑓𝑏 → 0.6 - 0.73

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 Fluidized Bed
0.22
𝑉𝐵
𝜀𝑓𝑏 =
𝑉𝑡

𝐿 1−𝜀
𝐿𝑓𝑏 = 0.22
𝑉𝐵
1−
𝑉𝑡

𝑥𝑖𝑗
𝐿𝑓𝑏 = 𝐿 1 − 𝜀 ෍ 0.22 = 150 𝑡𝑜 170 %
𝑉𝐵
1−
𝑉𝑖𝑗
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 Numerical Problem
Problem: Determining head loss across a bed of uniform-size
particles.

Clean water at 20ºC is passed through a bed of uniform sand at a filtering

velocity of 4.0 m/h (1.11  10-3 m/s). The sand grains are 0.4 mm in
diameter with a shape factor of 0.85 and a specific gravity of 2.65. The
depth of the bed is 0.75 m and the porosity is 0.4, determine the head loss
through the bed.

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 Numerical Problem
Solution:

1. Calculation the Reynolds number at 20º C ρ = 998.2 kg/m3

𝐾𝑔. 𝑚 𝐾𝑔. 𝑚
𝜇 = 1.002 × 10−3 𝑁. 𝑠Τ𝑚2 × 2 = 1.002 × 10−3
𝑠 𝑁 𝑚. 𝑠

𝜙𝜌𝑉𝑆 𝑑 0.85 × 998.2 𝑘𝑔Τ𝑚2 × 4.0 × 10−4 𝑚 × 1.11 × 10−3 𝑚Τ𝑠

𝑅𝑒 = =
𝜇 1.002 × 10−3 𝑚Τ𝑠
= 0.375 < 1.0 (𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑑)

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 Numerical Problem
Solution:

2. Calculate 𝒇`

150 1 − 0.4
𝑓` = + 1.75 = 241.75
0.375
3. Calculate head loss

𝑓 ` 𝐿 1 − 𝑒 𝑉𝑆2
ℎ𝑓 =
𝑒 3 . 𝑔. 𝑑𝑝

241.75 × 0.75 × 1 − 0.4 × 1.11 × 10−3 2 𝑚2 Τ𝑠 2

ℎ𝑓 = 3 2 −4
= 0.534𝑚
0.4 × 9.81 𝑚Τ𝑠 × 4.0 × 10 𝑚
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Mechanism of filtration

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Mixed media filter

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Filtration

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Wastewater trough

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Wastewater trough

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Thank you

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