The Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in Wastewater Biological Treatment Field

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which is a widely used technique, has been applied to the wastewater biological treatment field recently. It can clearly reveal the inner flow state that is the hydraulic condition of a biological reactor. In engineering, it is able to guide the optimization, and even the design. This paper reviews the application of CFD in the main biological reactors, including: stabilization pond, membrane bioreactor and activated sludge reactor. In addition, the existing difficulties are thoroughly analyzed from three aspects: the current researches, the limitation of the studies and the reasons of the limitation. The ultimate purpose of this review is to point out the developing direction of the research and to inspire researchers to expand the use of CFD in this field.