Track: Modeling and Simulation

Abstract

As the South African population grows, so too is the demand for clean water. There are numerous methods that have been developed over the years for cleaning water. Water purification technologies at Veolia Water Technologies, in Johannesburg, South Africa, is focused on increasing the quality of purifying water systems.  However, challenges of building bigger clarifying systems to accommodate for demand is key. In this paper, a structural control system on an existing clarifier is developed and tested in Ansys. This led to the identification of the number of stiffeners needed to support a 4m high rectangular tank, however, the number of stiffeners required for a tank of much larger size is still unknown. Various parameters such as fatigue failure, design variables, as well as the different stiffener positions and sections used to determine the local bucking points of the rectangular structure is tested in the FEA environment using Ansys. This allowed for the examination of the Actiflo’s behaviour using several stiffener configurations while simultaneously reducing the thickness of the structure in order to reduce costs. The effects of loads on deflections and stresses on the Actiflo are found to be pronounced around stiffener locations and local buckling points. Building on this a new model of a much larger Actiflo Clarifier is being proposed in this paper.As the South African population grows, so too is the demand for clean water. There are numerous methods that have been developed over the years for cleaning water. Water purification technologies at Veolia Water Technologies, in Johannesburg, South Africa, is focused on increasing the quality of purifying water systems.  However, challenges of building bigger clarifying systems to accommodate for demand is key. In this paper, a structural control system on an existing clarifier is developed and tested in Ansys. This led to the identification of the number of stiffeners needed to support a 4m high rectangular tank, however, the number of stiffeners required for a tank of much larger size is still unknown. Various parameters such as fatigue failure, design variables, as well as the different stiffener positions and sections used to determine the local bucking points of the rectangular structure is tested in the FEA environment using Ansys. This allowed for the examination of the Actiflo’s behaviour using several stiffener configurations while simultaneously reducing the thickness of the structure in order to reduce costs. The effects of loads on deflections and stresses on the Actiflo are found to be pronounced around stiffener locations and local buckling points. Building on this a new model of a much larger Actiflo Clarifier is being proposed in this paper.