Modelagem do escoamento gerado através de aeração por ar difuso em reservatórios

Abstract

Air-diffused aeration has been widely used in many countries to restore water quality in polluted water bodies. However, in Brazil, such solution has only been used in a few limited cases. In this paper, we present a relatively simple model for simulating the flow induced by air-diffused aeration in water bodies as well as a practical application of this model. The proposed model resulted in an excellent fit to the field data available in the literature. In addition, model simulations considering a hypothetical reservoir showed that low air flow rates (and low electrical powers) could induce very high water flow rates on the reservoir surface. These results are important to analyze the impact of air-diffused aeration on polluted reservoirs.