Department of Civil Engineering-I.I.T.

Delhi
CVL212: Environmental Engineering
2nd Semester 2022-23
HW: Sedimentation

Q1. What is the basic difference between settling of inert suspended particles and biological solids (i.e.,
biomass)? How would the settling pattern change if I have a sample with 100 mg/L inert suspended
particles and 800 mg/L biological solids?

Q2. Determine the settling velocity of a spherical particle with diameter of 200 micron and a specific
gravity of 2.3 in water at 25degC? Comment on settling behaviour of this type of particles.
[8+2=10 points]

Q3. For a flocculants suspension, determine the removal efficiency for a basin 10 ft deep with an
overflow rate V0 equal to 10 ft/h, using the laboratory settling data? Which parameters need to be varied
to increase removal efficiency? [15 points]

Q4. A settling column analysis is run on a type-I suspension. The settling column is 2 m tall and the
initial concentration of the well-mixed sample is 650 mg/L. Results of the analysis are below:
Time, min. 0 58 77 91 114 154 250
conc. remaining, mg/L 650 560 415 325 215 130 52
What is the theoretical efficiency of the settling basin that receives this suspension if the loading rate is
2.4×10-2 m/min? Which parameters need to be varied to increase removal efficiency? [5 points]

Q5. Can 100 nm nanoparticles in wastewater be removed using sedimentation tank in a municipal
wastewater treatment? [10 points]

Q6. Coagulation is generally used to collect all particles together with the help of chemicals and polymer
and then these collected particles are removed together in the settling process. Should I use this process to
remove discrete or flocculent particles? Why? Explain removal of these particles during the coagulation
process using alum chemistry.

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Q7. See the graph below and explain the relationship between TSS removal and overflow rate.

Q8. See the graph below and explain the relationship between TSS removal and settling time.
Further, what will happen to removal if settling time is increased for a given overflow rate?

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Q8. See the following graph below and draw TSS removal as a function of settling time. Also TSS
removal as a function of overflow rate.

Q9. See the following graph below and calculate removal for 50 minute settling time and
97m3/d/m2 overflow rate.