A COMPUTATIONAL FLUID-DYNAMICS (CFD) PARTICLE TRACKING APPROACH TO EFFICIENCY PREDICTION

Storage chambers play an important role in urban pollution management. They are frequently used in conjunction with CSO structures, where th ey reduce the number and magnitude of CSO spill events. However, one p roblem associated with the use of storage tanks at CSOs is the deposit ion of sediment. Techniques which enable engineers to design such cham bers for minimal deposition are required. In this paper the use of the particle tracking routine contained within the FLUENT computational f luid dynamics (CFD) software for the prediction of sediment deposition in storage chambers is described. The paper details the way in which the particle tracking routine was configured to produce realistic effi ciency results for the comparison of storage chamber performance. Cons ideration was given to the physical characteristics of the sediment, t he injection location, the boundary conditions and a number of relevan t simulation parameters. The sensitivity of efficiency prediction to t he selection of these parameters is emphasised. The paper also demonst rates the potential application of particle tracking to the prediction of probable deposit locations. (C) 1998 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier S cience Ltd.