DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN BASIS FOR HYDRODYNAMIC VORTEX SEPARATORS

Though many prototypes of hydrodynamic separators have been developed to remove solids from wastewater and stormwater, to date, not much fundamental development on unit performance evaluation exists due to the complexity of the problem. Design specifications of commercial separators are derived from empirical or semi-empirical equations that are unique and proprietary to each manufacturer. In this research, experimental and theoretical investigations were conducted to examine the mechanisms of solid-liquid separation for a general vortex separator, thereby providing a fundamental approach for unit performance evaluation. The main achievements and findings obtained through the experimental investigation and theoretical study are as follows. Experimental investigation with four physical vortex models, three with varying inlet pipe elevations and one with a lower chamber height, reveal that the impact of a changing inlet pipe elevation on particle removal efficiency is insignificant; while the effect of a changing chamber height on removal efficiency is significant and measurable. In the theoretical development, three topics, namely, flow pattern, particl