Abstract. Natural particles are frequently applied in drinking water treatment processes in fixed bed reactors, in fluidised bed reactors, and in sedimentation processes to clarify water and to concentrate solids. When particles settle, it has been found that in terms of hydraulics, natural particles behave differently when compared to perfectly round spheres. To estimate the terminal settling velocity of single solid particles in a liquid system, a comprehensive collection of equations is available. For perfectly round spheres, the settling velocity can be calculated quite accurately. However, for naturally polydisperse non-spherical particles, experimentally measured settling velocities of individual particles show considerable spread from the calculated average values. This work aimed to analyse and explain the different causes of this spread. To this end, terminal settling experiments were conducted in a quiescent fluid with particles varying in density, size and shape. For the settling experiments, opaque and transparent spherical polydisperse and monodisperse glass beads were selected. In this study, we also examined drinking water related particles, like calcite pellets and crushed calcite seeding material grains, both applied in drinking water softening. Polydisperse calcite pellets were sieved and separated to acquire more uniformly dispersed samples. In addition, a wide variety of grains with different densities, sizes and shapes were investigated for their terminal settling velocity and behaviour. The derived drag coefficient was compared with well-known models such as Brown–Lawler. A sensitivity analysis showed that the spread is caused to a lesser extent by variations in fluid properties, measurement errors and wall effects. Natural variations in specific particle density, path trajectory instabilities and distinctive multi-particle settling behaviour caused a slightly larger degree of spread. In contrast, greater spread is caused by variations in particle size, shape and orientation.
Terminal settling velocity of solids in the pseudoplastic non-Newtonian liquid system – experiment and ANN modeling
