Potable Water by Use of Swirl Concentrators

Water processing for potability purposes is a challenging and expensive exercise. In many cases raw water is in a state which demands elaborate treatment so as to produce clean water - chemically, bacteriologically and physically. The first two analyses are well known and the processes standardized to some extent. The last requirement is taken for granted - that is simple and therefore need not be considered. It is the physical requirements, for example colour, taste, smell and turbidity, that the public cares much for. In this paper the removal of solid particles, which are the main cause of turbidity and to some extent colour and taste in water, is discussed. The process is based on water power separation mechanism through the use of swirl concentrators. The concentrator uses the fluidic power of raw water to physically separate suspended solids from the raw water thereby rendering the water potable. Both theoretical or mathematical and physical treatments are provided. The liquid and particle flow is calculated by a numerical model. The model's equations of motion are solved numerically for a turbulent axissymmetric system of a vortex basin. A uniform computational grid is used when estimating the finite differences for the equations of motion. The mixing length model procedure is utilized to compute turbulence. The results of the numerical model do agree, to some extent, with the measured ones.