Optimizing Wastewater Treatment with IoT: A Case Study of Vaughan Co.
Technology Category
- Sensors - Flow Meters
- Sensors - Liquid Detection Sensors
Use Cases
- Smart City Operations
- Tank Level Monitoring
Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Vaughan Co. is a world leader in the manufacturing of chopper pumps, with over 35 patents and 20,000 pumps installed worldwide. The company's chopper pumps have been used in the toughest pumping applications in both heavy industry and municipal wastewater applications. The key to their operation is a scissor action which occurs between the impeller vanes and the housing, causing incoming solids to be chopped. These pumps are combined with tank floor-mounted nozzles to form the Rotamix® process mixing system, a cost-effective and low life cycle cost process mixing system for digester, sludge storage, and other high-volume large tank mixing applications.
The Challenge
Vaughan Co., a leading manufacturer of chopper pumps, faced a significant challenge in developing process mixing installations for wastewater treatment. The goal was to minimize 'dead zones' in the tank where solids could collect, as these solids decrease active volume and reduce process capacity. However, on-site process optimization was impractical due to the unique nature of each installation. Additionally, model testing for each installation was not only expensive but also offered limited information and could be unreliable due to scale-up issues. The company also faced difficulties in achieving convergence in numerical simulation of tank flows using conventional CFD solvers, due to the nature of the flow, which included large variation in length scales and low velocity.
The Solution
Vaughan Co. turned to ANSYS CFX, a high-performance computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, to overcome these challenges. The software enabled the company to develop process mixing systems with an optimum active mixed volume. It allowed for computer modelling of each unique installation, enabling the investigation of multiple configurations to determine the effect of nozzle position, aiming, and flow rate. The installed systems confirmed the predictions of the CFD simulations, demonstrating the accuracy and reliability of the software. Furthermore, CFD was also successfully applied to improve the operating efficiency of the chopper pumps themselves. The ease of use of ANSYS CFX, combined with excellent technical support, allowed Vaughan to make the most productive use of their CFD investment.
Operational Impact
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