Lecture 7

Setting and sedimentation: Part 1

 PA
ARTICLE SETTLING
S THEORY

owing force balance:

A particle settling in a fluid expeeriences follo

du
m  Fe  FD  Fb
dt

Where, m is the mass

m of the particle, u is the settliing

velocity of the parrticle in thee fluid, Fe   mae  is the

accelerattion force, ae =g for Grravitational settling andd ae

=rw2 for settling und

der Centrifu
ugal action. FD is the drrag

d Fb is the bu
force and uoyancy forcce and they are
a given as::

f u2
FD  CD Ap (3.7.1)
2

f
Fb  m ae (3.7.2)
p

Where,
W CD is
i the drag coefficient,, ρf and ρp are the deensity of fluuid and parrticle,

respectiv
vely. AP is projected
p areea of the paarticle and m is the maass of particcle. For spheerical

particles having diam

meter (DP), value
v of AP and
a m is giveen as:

 D 2P D P 3

AP  ,m  p (3.7.3)
4 6

For particles settling with

h terminal velocity
v (ut) uunder the foorce of graviitational forcce (ae

=g), (du//dt)=0. Puttiing the valu

ues of differrent forces, the terminaal velocity ((ut) by New
wton’s

method is
i given as:

2 m g  P   f  (3.7.4)
ut 
A pC D  Pf
 4  ρ P -ρ f  gD p
ut = (for Spherical particle) (3.7.5)
3 ρf CD

Variation of CD (Drag-coefficient)

In laminar zone, Stoke’s law is applicable

24   u D 
CD  ; 0.01  Re   f t P   0 .1 (3.7.6)
Re  f 

g( p   f )D 2P
ut  (3.7.7)
18 f

For transition zone, 0.1 Re 1000

a 18.5
CD  n
 0.6 (3.7.8)
Re Re
For turbulent zone, CD is independent of Re and CD=0.4

For non-spherical particles, formula for Reynold number and settling velocity calculation are

modified using the shape factor (  ) [1]:

f ut DP
Re   (3.7.9)
f

4  ρ P -ρ f  gD p
ut = (3.7.10)
3 ρf C D

Problem 3.7.1: A sand particle has an average diameter of 1 mm and a shape factor of 0.90 and a
specific gravity of 2.1, determine the terminal velocity of the particle settling in water at 20 oC
(kinematic viscosity of water=1.003×10-6 m2/s and specific gravity=1). Drag coefficient can be
computed using the following equation:
24 3
CD    0.34
Re Re

Solution: Kinematic viscosity    μf f 1.00310

6
 μf =1.003×10-6×103 =1.003×10-3 kg m s
Settling velocity using stokes law is:

9.81×   2.1-1 ×1000  × 1×10-3 

2
g(p  f )D 2P
ut    0.597 m/sec
18 f 18×1.003×10-3

f u t D P 10 3  0.597  1  10  3 
Re    0.90 =536.32
f 1.003  10  3

Since Re>1, therefore, Newton’s law should be used for finding terminal velocity in
transition zone. For initial assumption of settling velocity, stoke’s law is used. This initially
assumed velocity is used to determine the Reynold number which is further used to find settling
velocity. This iterative procedure is repeated till initial assumed velocity is approximately equal
to settling velocity calculated from Newton’s equation.
Initial drag coefficient is calculated as:
24 3
CD    0.34=0.5142
Re Re

4  ρ P -ρ f  gD p
ut = =0.1763 m s
3 ρf C D

Now, iterative procedure is continued:

ut (previous calculated) Re CD ut Difference
0.5977 536.3272 0.5143 0.1763 0.4214
0.1763 158.2037 0.7302 0.1480 0.0283
0.1480 132.7684 0.7811 0.1431 0.0049
0.1431 128.3690 0.7917 0.1421 0.0010
0.1421 127.5052 0.7939 0.1419 0.0002
0.1419 127.3315 0.7943 0.1419 0.0000
Final settling velocity=0.1419 m/s.

REFERENCES
Metcalf & Eddy, Tchobanoglous, G., Burton, F. L., Stensel, H. D. “Wastewater engineering:
treatment and reuse/Metcalf & Eddy, Inc.”, Tata McGraw-Hill, 2003.