Water Treatment (CEng 5403)

Assignment 4: Filtration & Softening

1. A monomedia filter is made a 0.6 m layer of sand with filtration rate of 9.78 m/h. From sieve
analysis, d10 = 0.53 mm, d30 = 0.67 mm, d50 = 0.73, d70 = 0.8 mm, and d90 = 0.86 mm. Assume
the grain sphericity is = 0.75 and a porosity is 0.40. Estimate the head loss of the filter at
15oC.
2. Water is being filtered in 0.8m deep sand filter having a porosity of 0.35 at rate of 9 m/h.
Determine the depth of expanded bed and velocity of backwashing if the porosity of
expanded bed is to be 0.7. If it is going to be backwashed for 12 minutes, what is the quantity
of water required for single back washing?
3. A sand filter is to be designed for new water treatment plant. A sieve analysis of the local
sand is given below. Using the sand analysis, find the effective size, E, and uniformity
coefficient, U.

Standard Analysis of Stock Sand

Sieve No. (Cumulative Mass % Passing)
140 0.2
100 0.9
70 4.0
50 9.9
40 21.8
30 39.4
20 59.8
16 74.4
12 91.5
8 96.8
6 99.0

4. The rapid sand filter being designed for a certain town has the characteristics and sieve
analysis shown below. Using the Rose equation, determine the headloss for the clean filter
bed in a stratified condition.
Depth = 0.60 m
Filtration rate = 120 m3/d. m2
Sand specific gravity = 2.50
Shape factor = 0.80
Stratified bed porosity = 0.42
Water temperature = 19oC

1
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
AAiT Water Treatment
 Standard Mass percent
Sieve No. retained
8–12 0.01
12–16 0.39
16–20 5.70
20–30 25.90
30–40 44.00
40–50 20.20
50–70 3.70
70–100 0.10

5. Determine the height of the expanded bed for the sand used in Problem 4 if the backwash
rate is 1,000 m/d.
6. The selection of an appropriate clean bed headloss equation is, in part, based on the
acceptable upper bound of the Reynolds number that is appropriate for the equation. If the
Rose equation is suitable up to R of 6, determine the upper filtration rate for sand and
anthracite beyond which it is not recommended. Use a spreadsheet program, plot the
Reynolds number versus the filtration rate for the following cases:

7. Write few pages note on membrane filtration: types, filtration mechanisms, applications and
limitations.
8. Given the following analysis of a groundwater, construct a bar chart of the constituents,
expressed as CaCO3 .41-120

Ion mg/L as ion EW CaCO3/EW iona mg/L as CaCO3

Ca2+ 103 2.50 258
Mg2+ 5.5 4.12 23
Na+ 16 2.18 35
HCO3- 255 0.82 209
SO42- 49 1.04 51
Cl- 37 1.41 52
a Equivalent weight of CaCO3 /equivalent weight of ion.

2
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
AAiT Water Treatment
9. From the water analysis presented below, determine the amount of line and soda (in mg/L as
CaCO3) necessary to soften the water to 90.00 mg/L hardness as CaCO3.
Water composition (mg/L)
Ca2+: 149.20 CO2: 29.3 HCO3-: 185.0
Mg2+: 65.8 SO42-: 29.8
Na+: 17.4 Cl-: 17.6

3
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
AAiT Water Treatment