Workshop: Computational Fluid Dynamics Hands-on CFD Modeling for Water

Resource Recovery Facilities

13-14th June, 2015: 1.5 days, 1pm-5pm 13/6/15, 9am-5pm 14/6/15.

Venue: Kurrawa Surf Club meeting room (https://www.kurrawasurf.com.au/)

Organisers: IWA CFD Working Group.

Principal Presenter: Nelson Marques, blueCAPE, Portugal (http://www.bluecape.com.pt)

Workshop objectives:

The objective of the workshop is to enable practical understanding, application, and analysis
of computational fluids dyanmics (CFD) to problems relevant to water and wastewater
treatment facilities. The workshop seeks to engage and educate individuals regarding the
basics of CFD via tangible, hands-on exercises, as well as to summarize the state-of-the art
for CFD modeling of Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRF).

There is growing interest in use of CFD to optimize hydraulic elements of WRRF but also to
improve design and operation of unit processes like sedimentation tanks, biological reactors,
and solids digestion facilities. Optimization of system hydraulics is often not adequately
addressed during design of water resource recovery facilities and water reclamation facilities.
Failure to adequately address hydraulics, and use of mass-produced off-the-shelf components,
can have a detrimental impact on conveyance, mixing and/or treatment and result in
inefficient operation. For example, pumps and blowers are less efficient as they push against
needless bends. Likewise, flow splitting between parallel process units is often poor, resulting
in lost capacity and poor operation. Secondary clarifiers are often overdesigned to account for
a lack of hydraulic engineering analysis or poorly designed due to lack of understanding of
the influences of tank geometry on operation. Grit builds up in anaerobic digesters due to a
lack of forethought into mixing requirements. Disinfection systems, both chemical and
ultraviolet, are often shoehorned into water reclamation facilities without adequate thought to
hydraulic approach, efficient contact, and hydraulic exit issues. Hydraulic design features
necessary to achieve high levels of removal of pathogens (e.g., 5 log removal as required by
the National Water Research Institute, NWRI guidelines) are not implemented. These areas
will be the focus of the workshop.

The workshop will provide hands-on experience using OpenFOAM for CFD modelling
focused on addressing some of these problems. All participants will receive a copy of
blueCFD, a Windows port of the OpenFOAM software platform, for installation and use on
their own laptop computers during the workshop.

Workshop program:

Fundamentals of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) will be presented

Application of CFD for more efficient and effective design and operation of
wastewater treatment, disinfection and water reuse treatment processes will be
demonstrated.
 Recent developments will be emphasized, including new and emerging software and
computations, model calibration and verification, sources of error, disinfection system
commissioning and validation, and use of CFD for optimizing treatment performance.
Real-world case studies will be presented to highlight the benefits and challenges of
using CFD modeling for various applications.

Presentations will include the following topics:

Hydraulics Review and CFD Fundamentals, Algorithms and

Computations

CFD Software Programs Model Construction, Calibration,

Predictions and Verification

Applications and Case Studies Hydraulic Facilities Design and

Evaluation, Mixing and Clarifier Design and Evaluation, Disinfection,
etc.

WRRF CFD Modeling - The State of the Art

Several hands-on modeling sessions will be conducted using the OpenFOAM platform
provided by blueCAPE.

Day 1 : Afternoon session (starting 13 :00)

Welcome and introductions
Workshop overview and objectives
Introduction to CFD
CFD state of art and good modelling practice
Different uses of CFD and case studies
Afternoon Tea
Introduction to OpenFOAM, participant installation, work path, and overview of installed
packages
Day 2 : Morning Session (Starting 9:00)
Getting started - Simple case study from mesh generation to post-processing
Meshing, and mesh analysis
Morning Tea
Physics, boundary conditions, discretization and numerical solvers
Lunch (starting 13:00)
Case studies, including open water surface, UV irradiation, and solids settling problems
(afternoon tea during session)
Additional topics on OpenFOAM
Closure