A simple empirical model for activated sludge thickening in secondary clarifiers

A simple empirical model for the thickening function of the activated sludge secondary clarifiers is presented. The proposed approach relies on the integration of previous models and it is based on the phenomenon of dilution of the incoming activated sludge in the feeding well of the settling tanks. The method provides a satisfactory description of sludge stratification within the clarifier. The only requirements are limited to parameters which are readily incorporated into the routine analysis performed in an activated sludge plant, thereby eliminating the need for additional experimental or computational effort. The method was tested in a full-scale activated sludge plant and it was found that it describes fairly well the return sludge concentration, the diluted sludge blanket concentration, the sludge blanket solids concentration and the sludge blanket height of full-scale secondary clarifiers.