Sludge Blanket Formation and Its Effects on Secondary Clarifier Performance

Abstract

Secondary clarifiers are a vital component of the activated sludge process. Previous studies have showed that operation factors such as surface overflow rate (SOR) and solids loading rate have an essential impact on secondary clarifier performance. However, the impact of these factors on sludge blanket formation and the effect of blanket on clarifier performance have not been studied thoroughly. In this study, a series of stress tests was conducted and the sludge blanket was allowed to accumulate during the tests for elucidating the relationships between sludge blanket and other critical operational parameters. It was found that the sludge blanket has a strong linear correlation with SOR and the linear models have the