Water-Circulating Aerator: Optimizing Structure and Predicting Water Flow Rate and Oxygen Transfer

Abstract

Thermal stratification is a common phenomenon in deep lakes and reservoirs, which often results in water-quality deterioration, including such problems as hypolimnetic anoxia, the release of pollutants from sediments, and algal blooms. Hypolimnetic oxygenation and destratification are the two commonly used methods for resolving these water-quality problems. A new water-quality improvement device, the water-circulating aerator, was designed to destratify lakes and reservoirs, by circulation and oxygenation of upper and lower layers of water. The design of the structure of the water-circulating aerator is detailed. Three mathematical models were built to optimize this structure, estimate the rate of water flow in the aerator, and calculate the rate of oxygen transfer from air bubbles to water in the aerator. These models were verified by experiments. The water-circulating aerator system has been successfully applied in a stratified reservoir to increase dissolved oxygen to reduce the releasing of ammonia-nitrogen from sediments under anoxic conditions.