Monitoring accumulation sediment characteristics in full scale sewer physical model with urban wastewater

Abstract

A series of experiments were carried out with real wastewater in a pilot flume located at A Coruña wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) (Spain). A full scale model was developed to test a circular (300 mm inner diameter) and an equivalent area egg-shaped plastic pipe under controlled experimental conditions (pipe slope 2–5‰, averaged discharge Q = 4 L/s). Velocity profiles and sediment accumulation in the pipe invert was daily measured. Within the 7–11 days, the average sediment accumulation rate found in the circular pipe was between 1.4 and 3.8 mm/d. The sediment height depended on the input wastewater sediment distribution and organic content. The egg-shaped pipe presented no sediment deposit for the same downstream boundary conditions, although biofilms were attached to the walls of both pipes. Besides, wastewater quality was monitored continuously and sediment composition was studied at the end of experiments. Two types of sediment were recorded: a granular bed deposit (ρ = 1,460 kg/m3, d50 = 202 μm) and wall biofilms (ρ = 1,190 kg/m3, d50 = 76 μm).