Process Modelling and Simulation of a Simple Water Treatment Plant

Abstract

Water treatment plants are likely to experience problems such as the water level both in the filter cells and in the tanks tend to fluctuate widely. These create the potential for partial drainage, overflow, and potential initial turbidity breakthrough at the beginning of the filtration cycles. This paper presents a mathematical model for studying the process behavior of a water treatment plant. A state equation was developed as a mathematical model of the process. This mathematical model was used to simulate the effects of varying the parameters of the plant (R, C, and I) representing the restriction of the connecting pipes, the capacity of the tanks and the filteration of the water filter, respectively, on the state variables (height of tank, h, and flowrate, q). The results of the simulation are presented graphically in the study. From the analyses, it was observed that varying any of the values of the parameters of the model has an effect on the water levels in the various tanks and the flow of water through the filter. The analyses of this paper on modeling a water treatment plant is a very simple way of knowing from the beginning the various sizes of pipes, tanks and filter to be used and how these will affect the flow of water in the plant before going into the physical construction of the plant.