Effect of inlet and baffle position on the removal efficiency of sedimentation tank using Flow-3D software

Sedimentation due to gravitation is applied widely in water and wastewater treatment processes to remove suspended solids. This study outlines the effect of the inlet and baffle position on the removal efficiency of sedimentation tanks. Experiments were carried out based on the central composite design (CCD) methodology. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used extensively to model and analyze complex issues related to hydraulic design, planning studies for future generating stations, civil maintenance, and supply efficiency. In this study, the effect of different conditions of inlet elevation, baffle’s distance from the inlet, and baffle height were investigated. Analysis of the obtained data with a CCD approach illustrated that the reduced quadratic model can predict the suspended solids removal with a coefficient of determination of R2 = 0.77. The results showed that the inappropriate position of the inlet and the baffle can have a negative effect on the efficiency of the sedimentation tank. The optimal values of inlet elevation, baffle distance, and baffle height were 0.87 m, 0.77 m, and 0.56 m respectively with 80.6% removal efficiency.