POTABLE WATER BY USE OF SWIRL CONCENTRATORS

Water processing for potability purposes is a challenging and expensiv e exercise. In many cases raw water is in a state which demands elabor ate treatment so as to produce clean water - chemically, bacteriologic ally and physically. The first two analyses are well known and the pro cesses standardized to some extent. The last requirement is taken for granted - that is simple and therefore need not be considered. It is t he physical requirements, f or example colour, taste, smell and turbid ity, that the public cares much for. In this paper the removal of soli d 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. Th e concentrator uses the fluidic power of raw water to physically separ ate suspended solids from the raw water thereby rendering the water po table. Both theoretical or mathematical and physical treatments are pr ovided. The liquid and particle flow is calculated by a numerical mode l. The model's equations. of motion are solved numerically for a turbu lent axissymmetric system of a vortex basin. A uniform computational g rid is used when estimating the finite differences for the equations o f motion. The mixing length model procedure is utilized to compute tur bulence. The results of the numerical model do agree, to some extent, with the measured ones.