Tracking and simulation of gross solids transport in sewers

ABSTRACT

Investigation of various phenomena occurring in sewer systems is critical for increasing the sustainability of such systems. Such investigations also includes gross solids (GS) transport. GS transport may be affected by reduction of flows resulting from population decrease and/or reduced domestic water consumption. The present paper reports on the development of a model for describing GS velocity as a function of wastewater flow characteristics. The model was calibrated and validated with field experiments, in which two methods for GS tracking in sewers were developed, using small light sticks tracked by computerized light detector, and RFID based tracking. The model is integrated in a simulator which allows a description of the movement of individual GS through sewer systems. The developed model may assist in analysing existing sewer systems that are subject to changes in their input flows and prevent undesired failures (e.g. sedimentations, blockages, toxic gases) or in designing new systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Gross solids transport
• in-sewer measurements
• modelling

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of the State of Israel [Grant reference 02WA1263].

The authors further wish to thank Netanya Water Corporation for providing data on the sewer system and for letting us perform and supporting the in-sewer experiments.

Flow data were obtained from R.Z.E.E Ltd. (Roberto Zimmerman Environmental Engineering).

The authors further wish to thank Mr Andreas Scheidegger of Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology) for his advice and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplementary data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST); [02WA1263].