Author(s): T. C. Lyons; A. J. Odgaard; M. Muste; S. Cowden; K. Nielsen; S. H. Orakzai
Linked Author(s): Troy Lyons
Keywords: Odor Control; Sewerage Tunnels; Air Induction; Drop Shafts; Deep Tunnels; Hydraulic Modeling
Abstract: The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is planning to construct a deep tunnel sewer to deal with significant overloading of its existing system. One of the extremely challenging issues is dealing with potential odors in several very high profile developments through which the tunnel will run. As a design aid, several vortex drop structures and a portion of the 40 km tunnel were modeled and tested to determine water and air flow interactions within the proposed system. Regional and centralized odor control designs were implemented by utilizing fans to extract air from the model under vacuum. The 1:7 Froude-scaled model incorporated a comprehensive LabVIEW-controlled experimental setup allowing real-time monitoring of air and water pressures and flows. This paper describes the challenges and solutions provided by the hydraulic modeling to ensure that the hydraulics do not adversely affect the air flows aimed to provide effective odor control in the system. The application of the air/water interactions learned from this study are not limited to sanitary flows, but can also be applied to storm water and combined sewage flows in deep tunnel systems that utilize drop shafts.
Year: 2011