Análisis numérico para la determinación de la eficiencia hidráulica de floculadores tubulares de geometría helicoidal

Abstract

At present, climate change produces periods of extreme rainfall or drought; this generates that especially in rural areas in times of drought the supply of drinking water becomes problematic, so it is recommended to build drinking water treatment areas located near rivers that in times of drought can still supply liquid to treat. The problem is that the construction of these plants requires high economic injections, which makes the execution of these projects unfeasible and as a consequence, the rural population lives repeatedly year after year in times of drought problems of drinking water supply; to avoid this it is necessary to look for ways to reduce costs and spaces in the construction of drinking water treatment. One way to reduce costs and space in the treatment of drinking water is to use high strength polyethylene pipes in the area of flocculation of raw water, these pipes can be screwed into a metal skeleton giving them a helical shape. This flocculator will have a pipe diameter and length calculated to meet the necessary parameters in the flocculation area, so that the additive placed will do its job efficiently. This flocculator idea has already been assembled and tested in the potable water treatment plant "Bayas" belonging to the city of Azogues, Ecuador, where a tubular helicoidal flocculator capable of treating a flow of 1 l/s was designed using a pipe of 110mm diameter and with lengths of 50 m and 75 m, these lengths are the ideal mathematically calculated, however, at the time of assembly in the field the real lengths of the flocculators were 57. 2 m and 82.3 m.