Comparative evaluation of solute mixing at water distribution pipe intersections

Water distribution programs integrate conservative mass balance equations for water quality parameters at pipe intersections that predicts perfect mixing conditions at the outlets of intersections. Studies have showed that instantaneous mixing assumption leads to overestimated results. Several methodologies have been implemented to study the solute mixing phenomena and mass fraction results, but none have established equivalence among methods. The present study examines the results of mass fraction at the outlets of a cross and double tee junction for three methods, CFD, Chlorine measurements and Image analysis. The experimental results for cross pipe showed that for equal diameter exist a relative flow range from 0.25 to 0.7 in which image analysis differs from CFD 16%, while chlorine keep equivalence with CFD. Below and above this range the three methods seem to converge to close results. Through the double tee results it was possible to stablish the threshold in which complete mixing results are valid. The study concludes that the solute mixing process is dependent from the configuration and the relative inflows rather than the material.

• Autores: Camargo Quiroga, David Alejandro
• Tipo de recurso: Trabajo de grado de pregrado
• Fecha de publicación: 2017
• Institución: Universidad de los Andes
• Repositorio: Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/61437
• Acceso en línea: http://hdl.handle.net/1992/61437
• Palabra clave: Calidad del agua; Dinámica de fluidos computacional; Red de agua potable; Uniones de tubería
• Rights: openAccess
• License: https://repositorio.uniandes.edu.co/static/pdf/aceptacion_uso_es.pdf