The oxford college of engineering

Ms. Kavya SK
Assistant professor
Department Civil Engineering

The Oxford College of Engineering

Banaglore- 560068

WATER SUPPLY AND TREATMENT ENGINEERING

Envirornment ; It is defined as surroundings consist of biotic and abiotic components will create a favorable
condition for the existence and development of life on the earth”.

Types of environmental pollution

Air pollution
Water pollution
Land pollution
Noise pollution

Environmental pollution
Environmental pollution is defined as “the contamination of the physical and biological components of the
earth/atmosphere system to such an extent that normal environmental processes are adversely affected.

Components of Envirornment
Biotic component
Abiotic component
Energy component (sun)

BIOTIC COMPONENTS

Living components on the earth (ex; plants, animals microorganisms )

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Abiotic components ; Non-living components on the earth

 Atmosphere (Air)
 Lithosphere (Land)
 Hydrosphere (Water)
 Biogeochemical cycle

Water pollution due to human activities ;

Natural processes occur within the ecosystem influencing the life of an individuals or human
beings. But the human activities altering the equilibrium in the processes and cycles involved.
Pollution disturbs our ecosystem and balance in the environment, with modernization and
development in our lives has reached the peak, giving rise to global warming and human illness.

Industrial activities ; Many of the industries releases unwanted toxins into the air, soil and
water and reduces its quality. Water pollution is caused mainly due to the disposal of industrial waste
water to the natural water bodies on the earth.
 Agriculture activities; Agriculture is one of the dominant sectors of the global economy.
Water is polluted due to the agricultural washings, pesticides, insecticides, soil erosion and
reduces the quality of water.
 Automobile sector; Automobiles are responsible for majority pollution. The exhaust
pollutants from the vehicles enter into the atmosphere and diffused with the rain water and
may cause water pollution.
 Improper management of solid waste ; It refers to the collection, segregation,
transportation and management of solid wastes along the street lines, drainages, parks,
schools, market yards pose a lot of threat to the environment.
 Deforestation ; Plants and trees are the good absorbers of the pollutants. Because
of the urbanization and development of roads, railways and infrastructure, deforestation
will takes place and it leads to water pollution.
 Hazardous waste; Hazardous wastes coming from the certain industries
like pharmaceuticals and electronics etc., and radioactive substances from the atomic power
plants may cause dangerous effect on the quality of water.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Importance and need for protected water supply

Water is a chemical and may occur in a liquid form or in a solid form or in a gaseous form. All
these forms of water are extremely useful to man, providing him luxuries and comforts, in addition
to fulfilling his basic necessities of life.

It has been estimated that two-third of human body is constituted of water. Water is absolutely
essential not only for survival of human beings, but also for animal, plants and all other living
beings. Further, it is necessary that the water required for their needs must be good, and it should
not contain unwanted impurities or harmful chemical compounds or bacteria in it and made safe to
public health.

Thus in order to ensure the availability of sufficient quantity of good quality water, it becomes
almost imperative in a modern society, to plan and build suitable water supply scheme, which may
provide potable water to the various section of community in accordance with their demand and
requirements.

The objective of community water supply schemes are:-

 To provide good quality water to consumers for drinking

 To supply adequate quality to meet at least the minimum needs of the individuals
 To prevent pollution of water source, storage and conveyance
 To design and maintain the system that is economical and reliable
 To make provision for future demand due to increase in population, increase in standard of
living.
 The sanitation of the area is considerably improved by adequate water supply and less
chance of water borne diseases to occur resulting in saving of human lives.

Demand of water

“The need of water by the community or a public or for the various other activities of human
beings” is called as demand of water”

Types of water demand

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

The total water demand of a city or a town can be classified into following types

 Domestic water demand

 Industrial water demand

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Institutional and commercial water demand

 Demand for public uses
 Fire demand and
 Water demand to compensate losses in wastes and thefts

Domestic water demand

 The water required to fulfill the need of a residential buildings for drinking, cooking,
bathing, lawn sprinkling, gardening and sanitary purposes etc., is called as domestic water
demand.
 The quantity of domestic water consumption per person may varies accordingly to the
living standards of the consumers.
 The total domestic water consumption is usually about 60% of the total water consumption.
 The minimum domestic water consumption for a town with full flushing system should be
taken at 200 l/h/d although it can be reduced to 135 l/h/d for economically weaker sections
and LIG sections.
 The total domestic water consumption is equal to the total design population multiplied by
per capita domestic water consumption.

Table 1: Minimum domestic water consumption (annual average) for weaker sections and LIG
colonies in small Indian towns and cities

SL Use of water Consumption in l/h/d

NO.
1 Drinking 5
2 Cooking 5
3 Bathing 55
4 Washing of cloths 20
5 Washing of utensils 10
6 Washing and cleaning of houses 10
7 Flushing of water closets 30
Total 135
Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK
Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Table 2: Minimum domestic water consumption (annual average) for Indian towns and cities with
full flushing system

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

SL Use of water Consumption in l/h/d

NO.
1 Drinking 5
2 Cooking 5
3 Bathing 75
4 Washing of cloths 25
5 Washing of utensils 15
6 Washing and cleaning of houses 15
7 Flushing of water closets 45
8 Lawn watering and gardening 15
Total 200

Industrial water demand

 It is the water required by the industries in present or likely to be established in the future in
the city for which water supply being planned.
 This demand will vary with the number and types of industries present in the city.
 The per capita demand on account of industrial needs generally varies from 50 l/h/d to 450
l/h/d.
 The requirement should be approximated on the basis of nature and magnitude of each
industry and the quantity of water required per unit of production.
 The quantity of water demand for industrial purposes is around 20 to 25% of the total
demand of the city.

Table 3: Water demand of certain industries

SL Name of the industry Quantity of water required per unit of production

NO. in kilolitres
1 Automobile 40
2 Distillery 122-170
3 Fertilizer 80-200
4 Leather 40

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

5 Paper 200-400
6 Petroleum refinery 1-2
7 Steel 200-250

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

8 Textile 80-140
3) Institutional and commercial water demand

 Water requirement by the institutions and commercial buildings such as hospitals, hotels,
restaurants, schools and colleges, railway stations offices, factories etc., is called as
institutional and commercial water demand.
 This demand of water will vary with the nature of the city and with the number and types of
commercial establishments and institutions present in it.
 Per capita demand of 20 l/h/d is usually considered to meet such commercial and
institutional water requirements, although this demand may be taken as 50 l/h/d for highly
commercial cities.

Table 4: Water requirement of institution and commercial water demand

SL Type of institution or commercial Average water consumption in l/h/d

NO. establishment
1 Offices 45-90
2 Schools
 Day scholars 45-90
 Residential 135-200
3 Hotels 180 (per bed)
4 Restaurants 70 (per seat)
5 Railway stations 45-70
6 Air ports 70
7 Cinema halls and theaters 15 (per seat)
5) Demand for public uses

 Quantity of water required for public utility purposes such as for washing of public
gardens, fountains, cleaning of sewers, washing and sprinkling on roads, etc.
 To meet the water demand for public use, provision of 5% of the total consumption is
made.
 Usually about 10 l/h/d is taken as the water demand for public uses.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

6) Fire demand

 Fires are generally breakdown in thickly populated and industrial areas and may causes
serious damage to the property and sometimes lives of the people may lost.
 Fire may takes place due to faulty electric connections by short circuiting, storage of fire
catching materials , explosions etc.
 All the big should have full fire-fighting squads. If fire breakdowns large quantity of water
is required to diminish that fire. Therefore, a provision is made in the water supply scheme
to supply sufficient quantity of water or keep as reserve in the water mains for this purpose.
 Fire hydrants are usually fitted in the water mains at about 100 to 150 meters apart and fire
fighting pumps are immediately connected into them by the fire brigade personal, as soon
as fire breaks out.
 The minimum water pressure available at the fire hydrants should be 100 t0 150 KN/m 2 and
should be maintained even after 4 to 5 hours of constant use of fire hydrant.
 The total amount of water requirement to meet the fire demand is taken as 1 l/h/d.
 While designing the public water supply schemes, the rate of fire demand is sometimes
treated as a function of population and is worked out on the certain empherical formulaes;
 Kuichling’s Formulae
Q =3182 √(P)
Where, Q = amount of water required in liters/minute
P = Population in thousands
 Freeman Formulae
Q = 1136 [ (P/10) + 10]
Where, Q = amount of water required in liters/minute
P = Population in thousands
 National Board of Fire Under Writers Formulae
Q = 4637 √P (1-0.01 √P )
Where, Q = amount of water required in liters/minute
P = Population in thousands

7) Water required to compensate losses in thefts and wastes

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The water required to compensate the water lost in leakage due to bad plumbing works or
damaged meters, stolen water due to unauthorized water connections and other losses and
wastes.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 These losses can be reduced by the careful maintenance and universal metering.
 The water requirement in this is to be taken as 15% of the total water consumption.

Per Capita Water Demand (l/p/d)

 “It is the average amount of daily water required by one person of domestic use, industrial
and commercial use, public use, thefts etc,.

Per Capita Demand (q) in liters/head/day = Total Yearly water requirement of the city in liters (9)

365 × Design Population 3

 The annual average daily consumption of each person for all uses is called as per capita
demand.

Table 5: Breakup of per capita demand (q) for average Indian city

SL Use Demand in l/h/d

NO.
1 Domestic use 200
2 Industrial use 50
3 Commercial use 20
4 Public use 10
5 Wastes and Thefts 55
Total = 335

Factors affecting Per Capita Demand (q):

The per capita demand considerably varies for different towns or cities and it may ranges between
100 to 360 liters/capita/day for Indian conditions. These variations in total water demand of
different cities depends upon various factors,

 Size of the city

 Climatic conditions

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Types of gentry and habits of people

 Industrial and commercial activities
 Quality of water supply
 Pressure in the distribution system

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Development of sewerage facilities

 System of supply
 Cost of water
 Policy of metering and method of charging

1) Size of the city

The per capita demand for big cities is large as compared to the small cities because in large cities
huge quantities of water are required for maintaining clean and healthy environments and also big
cities are generally sewered.

Similarly in a big city, commercial and industrial activities are generally more, thus requiring more
water.

2) Climatic conditions

The consumption of water by the people depends on the climatic conditions of the ecosystem. At
hotter and dry places, the consumption of water is generally more because of more bathing,
cleaning, air coolers etc. but in extremely cold countries, more water may be consumed, because
the people may keep their taps open to avoid freezing of pipes and there may be more leakage from
pipe joints, since metals may contract with cold.

3) Types of gentry and habit of people

Higher living standards people generally consume more water. Middle class communities consume
average amounts of water, but the poor dwellers consume very less quantity of water.

Thus the economic status will decides the quantity of water consumption by the people.

4) Industrial and commercial activities

The industries and commercial activities increase the water consumption by large amounts. The
industrial water demand is not directly depends upon the population and the size of the city but
more industries are generally situated in big cities thereby increasing the per capita demand for big
cities.
Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK
Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

5) Quality of water supplies

If the quality and the taste of supplied water is good, then it will be consumed more, because in
that case, people will not use other sources such as private wells, hand pumps etc.

Similarly, certain industries which require standard quality of water but they will not develop their
own supplies, if the provided supply of water is up to their required standards.

6) Pressure in the distribution pipes

If the pressure in the distribution pipes is high and sufficient to make the water reach at 3 rd or 4th
storey, then water consumption will become more.

The losses and wastes due to leakage are considerably increased if this pressure is high. If the
pressure increases from 20 m head of water (200kn/m 2) to 30 m head of water (300kn/m2), the loss
may go up to 20 to 30 %.

7) Development of sewerage facilities

The city development includes the design for water supply scheme and the sewerage system.
Generally sewered house consumes more water than the unsewered house.

Because in the sewerage system water is the diluting media to carry the effluents through the
sewers. The flush system will consumes more water than the conservancy system.

8) System of Supply

The water may be supplied continuously (24 hours) or intermittent supplies (peak period during the
morning and evening).

Intermittent supplies may lead to saving in water consumption due to losses occurring for lesser
time.

People have tendency to keep the tap open during non-supply hours, so that they may come to
know of it as soon as the supply is stored. Many a times, water goes on flowing even after the
supply is restored thus resulting in wastage of water.
Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK
Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

9) Cost of water

If the water rates are high, lesser quantity of water may be consumed by the people. But this may
not lead to large savings because the rich people are not affected much by such policies.

10) Policy of metering and method of charging

Water tax is generally charged in two different ways;

(i) On the basis of meter reading fixed at the head of the individual house connections
(ii) On the basis of certain fixed monthly flat rate
 If the water cost is fixed on the monthly rate and unmetered, then people generally will not
practice economy in the use of water, because they think that to pay only a fixed rate
irrespective of the water usage.
 When the supplies are metered, people uses the water based on their requirement. So that
metered water supplies are preferred because of the lesser wastages of water.

Variations in Demand of Water

The per capita demand is the annual average consumption of water. It does not remain constant
throughout the year but it varies from season to season, day to day and an hour to hour.

 Seasonal Variation
 Daily Variation
 Hourly variation

1) Seasonal Variation in Per Capita Demand

The water demand varies from season to season. In summer, the water requirement is maximum
because people will use more water in bathing, cooling, lawn watering and street sprinkling. This
demand becomes lesser in winter season and much lesser in rainy season.

2) Daily Variation of Per Capita Demand

This variation is depending on the general habits of people, climatic conditions and characteristics

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

of the city as industrial, commercial and residential. Generally, more demand of water will be on
Sundays and holidays due to more comfortable bathing, washing of cloths, residences etc.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

3) Hourly Variation in Per Capita Demand of Water

In Sundays and other holidays, the peak hours may be about 8 A.M due to late awakening of
people whereas it may be 6 A.M to 10 A.M and 4 P.M to 6 P.M in the working days.

The minimum draft is between 12 P.M to 4 A.M, because during this time most of the people are
sleeping.

 Average Daily Demand = (Per capita average consumption l/p/d) × Population

A.D.D = q (l/d)
 Maximum Daily Demand = 180% of average daily demand
M.D.D = 1.8 × q
 Maximum Hourly consumption of water of the maximum day is called as “peak demand”
Maximum hourly demand = 150 % of average hourly consumption of the maximum day
M.H.D = 1.5 × (M.D.D/24)
M.H.D = 1.5 × [ (1.8×q)/24]
M.H.D = 2.7 × (q/24)
Where, (q/24) = Annual average hourly demand
Therefore, [M.H.D = 2.7 × Annual average hourly demand]

Coincidental Draft

The maximum daily demand when added to the fire demand for working out the total demand is
known as coincidental draft.

For general community purposes, the total draft is not taken as the sum of the maximum hourly
demand and fire demand

Coincidental draft or demand = M.D.D × Fire demand

Design Period

“This is the future period or number of years considered for which a provision is made in designing
the various components of the water supply scheme” is called as design period.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The design period should neither be too long nor should be too short. The design period
should not exceed the useful life of the components of supply.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 A water supply schemes include big and costly structures (dams, reservoirs, treatment
units, pipes etc) which cannot be replaced or increased in their capacities easily and
conveniently.
 The water mains including the distribution pipes are laid underground and which cannot be
replaced or added easily, without digging the roads or disturbing the traffic. In order to
avoid these future complications of expansions, the various components of the water
supply scheme are purposely made larger so as to satisfy the community needs for a
reasonable number of years.
 Water supply projects under normal circumstances may be designed for a design period of
about 30 years.

Factors Governing the Design Period

(i) Useful life of the component structure: The design period should not exceed the useful life of
the component of the structure

(ii) Rate of Interest on Loans taken to complete the project: if the rate of interest is less, then it
will be good to keep the design period more. But if the rate of interest is very high then the design
period should be small.

(iii) Funds Availability: If the more funds are available for the completion of the project, then the
design period will be more.

(iv) Anticipated (expected or forecasted) rate of population growth including possible shifts in
communities, industries and commercial establishments. For example, if the rate of increase in
population is less, then a higher period can be chosen.

(v) Easy and difficulty that is likely to be faced in expansions, if undertaken at future dates. For
example, if more difficulty in expansion means choosing a higher value of the design period.

Population Data and its Forecasting

 The present population of a city or a town can be determined by conducting a survey called
as "census”.
Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK
Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The government of every country carries the survey at intervals of about 10 years.
Sometimes smaller period surveys are also conducted by state government or local
authorities.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 All the data available from the census department is collected by the planners of water
supply scheme.
 The data is then used for forecasting or predicting the future population of the city at the
end of the design periods.

Population Growth

In order to predict the future population as correctly as possible we have to consider three main
factors,

 Birth rate
 Death rate and
 Migrations

By adopting family planning practices, birth rate can be controlled and by providing proper
medical facilities to the community, death rate can be controlled. Rural industrialization is the only
effective of control the migration of people from villages to urban areas.

Population Forecasting

The various methods which are generally adopted for estimating the future population are;

 Arithmetic increase method

 Geometrical increase method
 Incremental increase method
 Decrease growth rate method
 Simple graphical method
 Comparative graphical method
 Master plan method
 The logistic curve method
 The apportionment method

1) Arithmetic Increase Method

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

This method is based on upon the assumption that the population increases at a faster rate.

i.e, the rate of change of population with time is constant

(dp/dt) = constant

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

(dp/dt) = k

dp = dt (k)

Population at nth decade, [Pn = P0 + n × x ]

Where, Pn = Forecasted population after nth decade from the present population

P0 = Population at present (i.e, last known census)

n = number of decades between present and future

x = average (arithmetic mean) of population increases in the known decades

( Note: For derivation refer class notes)

2) Geometric Increase Method

This method is based on the assumption that the percentage increase in population from decade to
decade is remains constant. The average percentage of last few decades is determined.

The basic difference between arithmetic method and the geometric method is that, whereas in
arithmetic method no compounding is done but in geometric method compounding is done every
decade.

The assumed constant value of percentage growth rate per decade( r ) is analogous to the rate of
interest per annum.

For nth decade, Pn = P0 [ 1 + (r/100) ]n

Where, Pn = Forecasted population after nth decade from the present population

P0 = Population at present (i.e, last known census)

n = number of decades between present and future

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

r = Assumed growth rate (%) ( Note: For derivation refer class notes)

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

3) Incremental Increase Method

In this method, the per decade growth rate is not assumed to be constant as in the arithmetic or
geometric progression methods, but is progressively increasing or decreasing, depending upon
whether the average of the incremental increases in the past data may positive or negative.

In this method, the average of incremental increase y is added once for the first decade, twice for
the second decade, thrice for the third decade and so on, and the mean arithmetic increase x is
added to the last known population.

( Note: For derivation refer class notes)

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK
Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

4) Simple Graphical method

In this method, a graph is plotted from the available data taking as time in the x-axis and
population in the y-axis. The curve is then smoothly extended up to the desired year.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

However, this method gives very approximate results, as the extension of the curve is done by the
intelligence of the designer.

5) Comparative Graphical Method

In this method, the cities having conditions and characteristics similer to the city whose future
population is to be estimated are selected.

It is then assumed that the city under consideration will develop as the selected similar cities have
developed in the past years.

However, it is difficult to find identical cities with respect to population growth.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

6) Master Plan method

The master plan prepared for a city is generally to divide the city in various zones and thus to
separate the residences, commercial and industry from each other, the population densities are also
fixed.

(For example: 5 person in a plot and there may be 10,000 plots in a zone, therefore the total
population is = 5×10000 = 50000)

Hence, when the development is regulated by such a scheme, it is very easy to access precisely the
design population because the master plan will give us as to when and where the given number of
houses, industries and commercial establishments would be developed.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

MODULE - II

Sources, Collection and Conveyance of Water

After estimating the population forecasting and and water demand by the public for the proposed
water supply scheme. Next step is to search the water resource to fulfill that demand nearby city,
which may be able to supply the required amount of water.

The various sources of water are;

 Surface sources
 Subsurface sources

(A) Surface sources

 Ponds and lakes

 Streams and rivers
 Storage reservoirs
 Oceans

(B) Subsurface sources

 Springs
 Infiltration galleries
 Infiltration wells
 Wells and tube wells

Hydrologic Cycle

Hydrology is a branch of science which deals with the movement of water on the ground, under the
ground and evaporation from the land and from the vegetation.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

The water which enters the atmosphere by the evaporation and transpiration and again comes back
to the earth surface by the precipitation form under favorable conditions is called as hydrological
cycle.

Due to the packets of energy (photons) from sunlight, the water from the earth surface like river,
lake, sea etc, evaporates and rises upwards.

At the higher altitude, due to the reduction in pressure, the water vapour expands by absorbing the
energy from the surrounding area which cools down.

Then the water which starts falling in the form of rain, hail, dew, sleet etc. when the temperature
falls too much, it may causes snowfall.

Various factors such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind velocity, forests, and height of
mountains are responsible for the precipitation.

This completes the water cycle in the earth ecosystem called as hydrological cycle.

Precipitation and its Types

The condensed form of water falling on the earth’s surface from the atmosphere is called as

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

precipitation.

 Cyclonic precipitation
 Convective precipitation
 Orographic precipitation

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Runoff

When the rain falls on the ground, a portion of water percolates in the ground up to its saturation,
and some portion will be evaporates and a portion will flows on the ground and reaches rivers and
streams.

Some portion percolates in the ground and comes out in the form of springs etc, at few places
under favorable geological conditions and joins into the river or streams. In this water reaches the
streams from surface runoff and from springs or underground water flow. The total quantity of
water which reaches the streams or rivers both from surface flow and base flow is known as runoff.

Surface Sources of Water

 Streams
 Rivers
 Ponds
 Lakes
 Reservoirs
 Oceans

1) Streams:

In mountainous or hilly region, streams are formed by the runoff water. The discharge in streams is
much higher in rainy season than the other seasons. The quality of water in streams is good but
except in the first runoff.

But sometimes while flowing over the ground surface, it will be mixed with clay, sand and mineral
impurities. The streams generally flow in valleys and are the main source of water supply to
villages of hills which are situated near them.

2) Rivers

Rivers are born in the hills, when the discharge of large number of springs and streams combine
together. As it moves forward, the more and more streams joins and increases the length and width
of the river.
Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK
Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Rivers are the only surface sources of water which have maximum quantity of water which can be
easily taken.

Therefore at the ancient times, the cities were developed along the banks of the river.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Perennial river
 Non – perennial river

3) Ponds

These are the natural depressions on the ground, in which water is collected during rainy season. In
the villages these ponds are used for washing the cloths, bathing of animals and drinking.

The water from the ponds cannot be used for the water supply purposes due to its limited quantity
and large amount of impurities.

4) Lakes

These are the natural basins or depressions formed with a impervious beds. Water from springs and
streams generally flows towards these lakes.

The quantity of water in the lake depends on its basin capacity, catchment area, annual rainfall etc.
the quality of water in lake is good than that of the ponds.

5) Reservoirs

These are water storage basins created by constructing the barriers across the flowing river. The
quality of the reservoir water is good and most of the cities depending on the reservoir water for
their supplies and also the huge quantity of water can be stored in the reservoir in the monsoon
season that can be used for the summer season for the human needs.

6) Oceans

Most of the quantity of water on the earth will be present in the form of ocean water. But this water
can’t be used directly for the human requirement because of saline nature. Several countries now a
day’s depending on the ocean water for their daily requirements, they are using the ocean water
after desalination process of water like Maldives.

Quantity and Quality of Surface Water Sources

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Quantity:

 The quantity of water in the surface water bodies are dependent on the rainfall

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 As the rainfall is not uniform throughout the year, then the quantity of surface water also
has large variations.
 The discharge of water in the rivers and streams is maximum in rainy season and minimum
in summer season.
 If the quantity of water in summer season is not sufficient to meet the demand, it should be
stored in a impounded reservoirs.
 In hilly areas having larger lakes, the construction of artificial reservoir is not necessary.

Quality:

 Rain water even though pure in its beginning but it gets polluted during its journey from
atmosphere to earth surface by absorbing gasses and particulate matter.
 Surface when it flows on the earth surface, large amount of impurities both in suspended
and dissolved form added into the river or streams.
 Sometimes it may contain some disease causing microorganisms.
 In lakes and reservoirs, the suspended impurities settle at the bottom, but it causes the
growth of algae, vegetable and organic growth, which produce bad smell, taste and colour
in the water. Therefore, this water can be used after treatment.
 The sewage of towns and cities situated near the rivers is also discharged into the rivers,
which pollute the river water, therefore while taking the water for water supply purposes,
intake should always be installed in the upstream side.
 However, surface water is generally soft and less corrosive than ground water.
 Surface water generally contaminated and cannot be used without treatment. Therefore it
warrants the building up of proper purification plants.

Sub-Surface Sources
The water which gets stored in the ground water reservoir through infiltration is known as
groundwater. The percolation of water into the earth surface is called as infiltration, it is the main
process responsible the groundwater recharge.

1) Springs

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

When the ground water exposed to the earth surface sharply, is called as spring or the natural outlet
of ground water on the earth surface is called as spring.

Springs can be classified into three types as gravity spring, surface spring, and artesian spring.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

a) Gravity Spring

When the water table raises high and water overflows through the sides of natural valley or
depression forms gravity spring.

Fig: Gravity Spring

b) Surface Spring

An impervious stratum supporting the underground storage becomes inclined causing the water
table to go up and get exposed to earth surface, called as surface spring.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Surface Spring

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

c) Artesian Spring

When storage water is under pressure, spring formed is known as artesian spring. In which the
water comes under pressure because pervious aquifer is sandwiched between two impervious
geological formations.

Fig: Artesian Spring

2) INFILTRATION GALLERY

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Section of an Infiltration Gallery

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The ground water travel towards lakes, rivers or streams, this water which is travelling can
be intercepted by constructing a horizontal tunnel with holes on sides at right angle to the
direction of flow of underground water.
 These underground tunnels used for tapping underground water near rivers, lakes or
streams are called as infiltration galleries, constructed at a shallow depth (3 to 5 meter)
along the banks of a river through the water bearing strata.
 These galleries are generally of masonry walls with roof slabs and extract water from the
aquifer by various porous lateral drain pipes located at suitable intervals in the gallery.
 These pipes are generally covered with gravel, so as to prevent the entry of fine sand
particls into the pipes.
 The tunnels are galleries are generally laid at a suitable slope and the water get collected in
them is taken to a sump well, from where it is pumped, treated and distributed to the
consumers.
 The infiltration galleries may have a width of about 1 meter, depth of about 2 meter and a
length varying from 10 m to 100 m, depending on the extent of the water field.

3) Infiltration Wells

Fig: Locations of Infiltration Well

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Section of an Intake Well

 Infiltration wells are the shallow wells constructed in series along the banks of a river, in
order to collect water seeping through their bottoms. These wells are generally constructed
of brick masonry with open joints.
 They are generally covered at a top and kept open at the bottom. For inspection purpose
man holes are provided.
 The various infiltration wells are connected by porous pipes to a common sump well called
as jack well. The water reaching the jack well from the different infiltration wells is lifted,
treated and distributed to the consumers.
 Infiltration wells or galleries can be constructed near Perennial River or ponds can be
constructed near perennial river or lakes, to collect infiltered surface water for all domestic
purposes. Since the water infiltrate through a layer of soil/sand, it is significantly free from
suspended impurities including microorganisms usually present in surface water.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Plan of a Jack well receiving water from a number of infiltration wells

4) Wells:

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Water well is a vertical hole, excavated in the earth for bringing ground water to the surface.

Generally there are two types of wells.

 Open well
 Tube well

Open Wells:

 Smaller amount of ground water has been utilized from ancient times by open wells.
 Open wells are generally open masonry wells having comparatively bigger diameter and
are suitable for low discharges.
 The diameter of the open well generally varies from 2 to 9 m and they are generally less
than 20 m in depth.
 The walls of an open well constructed by brick masonry or stone masonry.
 The yield of an open well is limited because such wells can be excavated only to a limited
depth, where the ground water storage is also limited.
 The discharge from an open well is generally limited to 3 to 6 L/s.

Open wells can be classified into,

 Shallow wells
 Deep wells
a) Shallow wells
 A shallow well is a well which is present in previous strata and draws its supply
from the surrounding strata.
 Shallow wells draws water from the topmost water bearing stratum, its water is
liable to contaminated by the rain water percolating in the vicinity and taking with it
minerals or organic matter such as decomposing animals and plants etc.
 Water is generally drawn from by means of a bucket and a rope. However, due to
the possible surface contamination of water in an uncovered well and also the
individual buckets adding contamination to the water, such open wells have been
covered in many parts of India and fitted with hand pumps.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

b) Deep wells
 A deep well is the one which rests on an impervious “mota” layer and draws its
supply from the previous formation lying below the “mota” layer. (Note: Mota

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

layer refers to a layer of clay, cemented sand or other hard materials, which found
below the water table in the subsoil.)
 The main advantage of such a mota layer is giving structural support to the open
wells resting on its surface. It is useful for unlined and partly lined wells, and is
not indispensible for a heavy masonry well which would not remain stable under
steady use without such a support. The mota layer generally found throughout the
Indo-Gangetic plain
 The water in a deep well, on the other hand, is not liable to get such impurities and
infections. The pervious formation below the mota layer generally contains greater
quantities of ground water, yielding higher specific yields. Hence, larger discharge
and larger supplies can be obtained from a deep well as compared to those from a
shallow well.

Fig: Shallow Well and a Deep Well

Tube Wells:

Tube well is a long pipe or a tube, is bored or drilled into the ground, intercepting one or more
water bearing strata.

Larger discharge can be obtained by getting a larger velocity as well as larger cross section area of

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

water bearing strata. The depth of tube well may vary from 70 to 300 m

Generally average yield from the standard tube well is 40 to 45 L/s.

Tube wells can be classified into;

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Cavity type tube wells

 Screen type tube wells

Quality and Quantity of Ground Water (Subsurface water) and

Usefulness for Public Water Supplies

Quality:

 This water generally pure because it undergoes natural filtration during the percolation
through the soil pores.
 Also, this water is less likely to be contaminated by the disease causing microorganisms.
 This water is generally free from suspended impurities and organic matter.
 However, it may contain dissolved salts, minerals, gasses etc, these may impart different
tastes, odour and some other properties such as hardness, fluoride concentration etc, to it.
 Since the chances of outside pollution are much less in an artesian aquifer, the quality of
tube well water, drawing water from the second or even lower water bearing strata is
generally very safe.
 This water can be supplied to the public after certain testing even without any treatment.
 Groundwater is found colder in hot seasons and hotter in cold seasons, and is thus very
useful for domestic uses.

Quantity:

 The quantity of the groundwater available is generally less compared to the surface water.
 The amount of groundwater available at a particular place depends upon the underground
storage and the geological formations of the area.
 Ground water is being largely tapped in India. About 70-80% of our population gets their
supplies from underground sources.
 Proper conservation, protection and development of this vital source is extremely
important.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

QUALITY OF WATER
The water required for public water supply should have the good quality and should be potable or
wholesome water i.e., fit for drinking purposes.

The quality of water can be described by the two properties of water i.e., palatability and
wholesomeness of water

Palatable water (pleasant to taste) – the presence of some minerals in water is required to give
some taste to the water.

Wholesome water (nutritious, healthful, healthy) – the water in which there no pathogenic
bacteria, no toxic substances and no excessive organic matter.

Potable water – safe to drink or drinkable

Objectives of Water Quality Management

 To ascertain if the supplies maintain the required degree of purity and to find out the extent
of any variations which occur.
 To ascertain the effect of heavy rainfalls or of long – continued draught on river waters.
 To decide the water obtained from the sources will be pure, wholesome, not too hard and
free from the risk of any pollution.
 To examine the effect of pumping on well water, especially when the wells are situated
near the sea or an estuary.
 To identify the organisms responsible for the spreading of the water borne diseases.
 To know the characteristics of water at various depths of deep wells or tube wells.
 To know the quality of water used for public swimming baths.
 To study the process of self purification of streams and rivers.
 To suggest the best method of purifying or softening of water.

Wholesome water

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

The impurities in water are to be removed to a certain extent at which that does not cause any
harmful effects on public health.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Therefore, the wholesome water is the water which is not chemically pure, but doesn’t contain any
harmful contents that have adverse effect on human health. That is the water in which there are no
pathogenic bacteria’s, no toxic substances and no excessive organic matter.

Thus, the wholesomeness is a must while the palatability of the water is desirable.

Requirements of wholesome water or properties of wholesome water

 It should be colorless, sparkling clear and must be free from solids.

 It should of good taste and free from odour.
 It should be reasonably soft.
 It should be free from objectionable dissolved gasses such as hydrogen sulphide.
 It should have sufficient quantity of dissolved oxygen and dissolved minerals.
 It should free from objectionable metals such as iron, manganese, lead, arsenic and other
poisonous metals.
 It should be free from radioactive substances such as radium, strontium etc.
 It should be free from phenolic compounds, chlorides, fluorides and iodine.

Water Quality Parameters or Characteristics of Water

The quality of the water can be judged based on the characteristics of water. The raw water or
treated water can be checked and analyzed by studying and testing their physical, chemical and
biological characteristics.

The characteristics of the water can be divided into;

i) Physical Characteristics

ii) Chemical Characteristics

iii) Biological or Microscopical Characteristics

A) PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

The physical characteristics of the water include,

 Colour
 Taste and odour

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Temperature
 Turbidity
 Specific conductivity

a) Colour

 The pure water is colorless

 The colour in the water is due to suspended and dissolved organic matter from decaying
vegetation, and some of the coloured soils.
 The excessive growth of algae and aquatic microorganisms may sometimes gives colour to
the water
 The presence of colour in the water is not objectionable from the health point of view but it
may spoil the colour of the cloths being washed in such water and is also objectionable
from the aesthetic and psychological point of view, as people may not like to drink
coloured water.
 The colour in the water can be easily detected by the necked eye.
 It can be measured by comparing the colour of the water sample with other standard glass
tubes called as nessler tubes containing solutions of different standard intensities.
 The standard unit of colour is that which is produced by one milligram of platinum cobalt
dissolved in one liter of distilled water. Different standard colour intensities representing as
1 ppm, 2 ppm, 3 ppm (mg/l), etc can thus be easily prepared by dissolving 1 mg, 2 mg, 3
mg, etc respectively of platinum cobalt (Pt3CO) in liter of water.
 The instrument used for which is properly lighted from inside for the determination of
colour intensities is called a Tintometer. The instrument contains an eye piece with two
holes. A slide of standard coloured solution is seen trough one hole and the slide of water to
be tested is seen from the other hole. The standard coloured solution is replaced by another,
till a matching is obtained. The standard colour intensity corresponding to this matching
will represent the intensity of the colour of the water sample.
 The maximum permissible limit of colour for domestic supplies is 20 ppm.

b) Taste and Odour

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Tastes and odour are of prime importance in assessing the palatability of water.
 The dissolved organic matter or the inorganic salts or the dissolved gasses impart or gives
tastes and odour to the water.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Tastes and odours may be caused by the presence of dissolved gasses such as H 2S, CH4,
CO2, NaCl, iron compounds, carbonates and sulphates of other elements.
 However, tastes and odour are the most difficult characteristics to measure in any numerical
sense because of personnel factors related to the taste and odour.
 For drinking purposes water should not contain any objectionable taste and odour.
 The extent of taste and odour present in a particular sample of water is measured by odour
intensity, which is related with threshold number.
 The threshold odour number represents the dilution ratio at which the odour is hardly
detectable. Therefore, water to be tested is gradually diluted (dilution ratio generally 1:4)
with odour free water and the mixture at which the detection of odour by human
observation is just lost, is determined. The number of times the sample is diluted represents
the threshold number.
Thus if 40 ml of sample is diluted and is made 200 ml then the threshold number will be 5.
 For public supplies, the water should generally free from odour i.e, the threshold number
should be 1 and should never exceed 3.

c) Temperature

 The temperature of the potable water should be between 100C to 250C.

 Temperature higher than 250C is considered as objectionable.
 It can be measured by ordinary thermometer.

d) Turbidity (Turbid – a liquid thick with suspended matter or not clear or not transparent)

 If large amounts of suspended or colloidal matter such as silt, clay or some other finely
divided organic matter are present in water, then the water will appear to be muddy or
turbid in appearance.
 The turbidity depends upon the fineness and concentration of the particles present in water.
Although the clay or other inert suspended particles may not harmful to health, yet they
have to be removed fpr aesthetic and physiological reasons.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Turbidity can be measured by turbidity rod or by turbiditimeter with optical observations

and is expressed as the amount of suspended matter in mg/l or ppm.
 The standard unit is that which is produced by 1 milligram of finely devideed silica in 1
liter of distilled water.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The turbidity which is excess in 5 units is objectionable in drinking water.

The turbidity of water can be measured by turbidity rod and turbidity meter.

Turbidity rod:

 The turbidity can be easily measured in the field with the help of a turbidity rod.
 It consists of a aluminum rod which is graduated as to give the turbidity directly in silica
units (mg/l).
 To the upper end of this rod is attached a graduated non-stretchable tape, so as to help in
lowering of the rod. A screw containing a platinum needle and a nickel ring is inserted at
the lower end of the rod and there is a mark for eye position on the graduated tape.
 Inorder to measure the turbidity, the graduated aluminum rod is lowered in water and the
depth at which the platinum needle disappears, keeping eye at the eye mark, under standard
light conditions is noted which directly gives the turbidity in ppm or silica standard on
graduated rod.

Turbidity meter:

The turbidity can be measured in the laboratory with the help of instruments called as turbidity
meter. In general, the turbidty meter works on the principle of measuring the light interference
caused by the water sample to the passage of light rays.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

There are two types of turbidity meter; Jackson turbidity meter and nephelometric turbidty meter.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Jackson Turbidity meter:

 It is also called as Jackson candle turbidity meter consists of a calibrated glass tube which
can be placed on a metallic cylindrical tube holder fixed over a metallic stand provided
with a fixed standard candle at its bottom.
 The glass tube placed over the lighted candle, the water sample is gradually added to the
glass tube and observe the candle from the top of the tube. The addition of the water is
stopped when the image of the candle is disappears. At this stage the height of the turbid
water can prevent the candle light pass through it.
 The height of the water column measured in the calibrated glass will thus provide a
measure of turbidity of water. The longer the light path lower will be the turbidity. It can
be measured in JTU
 Such a turbidity meters cannot measure the turbidity lower than 25 JTU.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Nephelometric Turbidity meter:

 These are the modern commercial turbidity meters being used these days on a large scale,
particularly for measuring very low turbidities of drinking water (less than 1 unit).
 In thus meter light intensity is measured at right angles to the incident light. Such an
instrument uses a photometer to measure the intensity of light passing through the turbid
water, after the same is scattered at right angles to the incident light.
 Turbidity is measured by NTU. But here instead of using silica suspension, we are using
Formazin polymer as a reference turbidity standard.
 A nephelometer is an instrument for measuring the concentration of suspended particulate
matter in a liquid.
 The density of particles determines the scattering of light.

e) Electric Conductivity

 Pure water is not a conductor of electricity because the electric current is transported by the
ions in solution, the conductivity increases as the concentration of the ions increases.
 Electric conductivity of water determines the total amount of solids dissolved in water
(TDS).
 While the electric conductivity is a good indicator of the salinity, it still does not provide
any information about the ion composition in the water.

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The unit of measurement of EC is micron Siemens per centimeter.

 Since the electric conductivity is a measure to the capacity of water to conduct electric
current, it is directly related to the concentration of salts dissolved in water and therefore to

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The oxford college of engineering

the total dissolved solids (TDS). Salts dissolved into positively charged and negatively
charged ions, which conduct electricity.
 Distilled water does not contain any dissolved salts as a result, it does not conduct
electricity and has an electric conductivity of zero.

CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER

Chemical analysis is carried out in order to determine the chemical characteristics of water.

This involves determining the total solids, suspended solids, pH, hardness, chloride content,
nitrogen content, iron, manganese and other metal contents.

a) Total Solids

The total amount of solids (suspended + dissolved) present in water can be determined by
evaporating a sample of water and weighing the dry residue left. The suspended solids can be
found by filtering the water sample and weighing the residue left on the filter paper.

The difference between the suspended solids and the total solids will give the dissolved

solids. The total permissible amount of solids in water is generally limited to 500 ppm or

mg/l.

b) pH of Water

The pH value of water indicates the logarithm of reciprocal of hydrogen ion concentration present
in water. Thus it is the indicator of acidity or alkalinity of water.

(write pH formulae)

Since the pH is the logarithem of reciprocal of H + concentration, the higher the value of pH means
lower the hydrogen ion concentration and thus represents alkaline solution.

pH scale range is between 0 to 14 and acidity varies from 0 to 7 and alkalinity varies from 7 to 14.
pH 14 is neutral.
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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

The alkalinity is caused by the presence of bicarbonates of calcium and magnesium or by the
carbonates or hydroxides of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.

Acidity is caused by the presence of mineral acids, free carbon dioxide etc. in water.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

The maximum acidity will be at zero and the maximum alkalinity at 14.

Measurment of pH:

The pH value of the water can be measured quickly and automatically with the help of a
potentiometer, which measures the electrical potential excerted by hydrogen ions and thus
indicating their concentration.

pH can also be measured with the help of colour indicators (dyes) which are added to the water and
the colour produced is compared with standard colours of known solutions.

Permissible pH value:

For a public water supplies, the pH should be as close to 7. The acidic values may cause
tuberculation and corrosion. While higher values of pH may produce encrustation, sediment
deposits, certain psychological effects on human body system.

However, the permissible pH values for public supplies may range between 6.5 to 8.5.

c) Hardness of Water

Hradness in water is that characteristic which prevents the formation of sufficient lather or foam
when such hard water mixed with soap.

 It is usually caused by the calcium and magnesium salts present in water, which form scum
by reaction with water.
 It leads to greater soap consumption, scaling of boilers, causing corrosion and encrustation
of pipes, making food tasteless, etc.

There are two types hardness in water:

Temporary Hardness – is caused due to the presence of carbonates and bicarbonates of calcium
and magnesium and it can be removed by simply boiling the water or by adding lime to the water.
When such hard waters are boiled carbon dioxide escapes out and the insoluble calcium carbonates
gets precipitated. Magnesium carbonate, being fairly soluble in water won’t get removed by

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The oxford college of engineering

boiling.

The temporary hard water cause deposition of calcium scales in boilers.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Permanent Hardness – is caused due to the sulfates, chlorides and nitrates of calcium and
magnesium ions present in water. Permanent hardness can’t be removed by boiling so that special
treatment are necessary.

Measurement of Hardness: Hardness is generally defined as calcium carbonate equivalent of

calcium and magnesium ions present in water and is expressed in mg/l. it can be determined by the
titration EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetracetic acid) method.

Soft water – hardness upto 75 mg/l or

ppm. Hard water – hardness morethan 200

mg/l

Moderately Hard water – between 75 to 200 mg/l.

Underground waters are generally harder than the surface water. Sometimes hardness is more than
300 mg/l and thus requiring treatment.

For boiler feed water and cloth washings in laundries, the water must be soft with hardness less
than 75 mg/l. However for drinking purposes, water with hardness below 75 mg/l are generally
tasteless, and hence prescribed hardness limit for public supplies ranges between 75 – 115 ppm.

d) Chloride Content:

Chlorides are generally present in water in the form of sodium chloride (common salt, NaCl) and
may be due to leaching of marine sedimentary deposits, pollution from sea water, industrial or
domestic wastewater discharge to surface water.

The chloride concentration above 250 mg/l produces a salty taste in drinking water.

The presence of high quantity of chloride (or sodium chloride) in river or stream water may
indicate pollution of water due to sewage and other human wastes and industrial wastes.

The chloride concentration raw water, being used for public supplies should be regularly be tested,
so as to immediately detect any sudden increase in its chloride content and the possibility of any

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The oxford college of engineering

organic pollution of water.

The chloride content of water can be measured by titrating the water with standard silver nitrate
solution using potassium chromate as indicator.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

e) Nitrogen content

The presence of nitrogen in water is an indication of the presence of the organic matter and occurs
in the following forms.

 Free ammonia
 Albuminoidal or organic nitrogen
 Nitrites
 Nitrates

 The presence of free ammonia indicates the very first stage of decomposition of organic
matter, indicates recent pollution. For potable water its value should not exceed 0.15 mg/l.
it can be easily measured by simply boiling the water and measuring the liberated ammonia
gas by distillation process.
 The presence of albuminoidal nitrogen indicates the quantity of nitrogen present in water
before the decomposition of organic matter has started and it should not a value of 0.3 mg/l.
it can be measured by adding strong alkaline solution of potassium permanganate (KMnO 4)
to already boiled water sample and again boiling the same, when ammonia gas is liberated,
which is measured, that it indicates the amount of organic nitrogen present in water. The
sum of ammonia nitrogen and the organic nitrogen is called as Kjeldahl Nitrogen
 The presence of nitrites indicates the presence of partly decomposed or not fully oxidized
organic matter and it is highly dangerous and therefore its permissible amount is nil in
drinking water.
 Nitrates indicate the presence of fully oxidized organic matter in water that represents old
pollution and this may not be harmful. However, the presence of too much of nitrate in
water may adversely affect the health of infants, causing a disease called as
“mathemoglobenemia” or blue baby syndrome. The nitrate concentration in domestic water
is generally limited to 45 mg/l.

f) Metals and other chemical substances

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The oxford college of engineering

The various metals are found in water such as iron, manganese, copper, lead, barium, cadmium,
arsenic, selenium, fluoride, etc. the amounts of these minerals or metals in potable water are then
limited to their standard values, so as to avoid their harmful effects on human life.

A few important are discussed here;

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Iron and Manganese: the desirable limits of iron and manganese are 0.3 ppm and 0.05 ppm
respectively. If it crosses the desirable values causes discolourastion of clothes if washed in
such water and also they may cause incrustation in water mains due to the deposits of ferric
hydroxide and manganese oxide.
 Lead (0.01 mg/l) and barium salts are toxic and only very low concentration are permitted.
 Arsenic (0.01 mg/l) and selenium (0.01 mg/l) are poisonous and very very low
concentrations of theses salts can be tolerated by human systems.
 High quantities of copper (1.0 mg/l)are likely to affect human lungs and other respiratory
organs. If sulphate concentration is more than 250 ppm, a laxative effect is produced on
human system.
 A fluoride concentration of less than 0.8 – 1.0 ppm may be harmful and may cause dental
caries (tooth decay) due to the formation of excessive cavities in the teeth of young children
during calcination of their permanent teeth. Higher fluoride concentrations, greater than 1.5
ppm is once again harmful causing spotting and discolouration of teeth (flourosis) and also
causes bone deformation.
 The metals can be determined by colour intensity matching methods or by
spectrophotometer.

(For all other metals refer S. K Garg text)

g) Dissolved Gasses

 The various gasses which may get dissolved in water due to its contact with the atmosphere
or the ground surface may be nitrogen, methane, hydrogen sulphide (H2S), CO2, O2, etc.
 The nitrogen gas is not very important but the concentration of methane gas is be studied
for its explosive tendency.
 The hydrogen sulphide gas may give bad taste and odour to the water and therefore, should
be removed.
 Presence CO2 in water indicates biological activity. It imparts bad taste and odour to the
water and may also cause erosion.
 Oxygen gas is generally absorbed by water from the atmosphere, but is being consumed by
the unstable organic matter for their oxidation. Hence, if the oxygen present in water is
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found to be less than its saturation level, it indicates the presence of organic matter
 The desirable limit of oxygen in water is 4 mg/l or greater than 4 mg/l.

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Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD):

 The extent of organic matter present in water can be easily estimated by supplying the
oxygen to the sample and finding the oxygen consumed by the organic matter present in
water. This demand or requirement of oxygen by the microorganisms to complete the
biological decomposition of organic matter is called as “biochemical oxygen demand”.
 The BOD of raw water will directly indicates the amount of organic matter present in the
sample, and thus indicates the extent of treatment required for water.
 The BOD of the treated water or drinking water should be “nil”, so as to make it free from
any organic matter.
 Polluted water will continue absorb oxygen for many months till the oxidation gets
completed and it is not practically possible to determine this ultimate oxygen demand.
Hence, the BOD of water during the first five days at 200C is generally taken as the
standard demand.

BOD5 = BOD of 5 days = (Loss of oxygen in mg/l) * (Dilution factor or dilution ratio)

BACTERIOLOGICAL OR MICROSCOPICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

WATER

Following are the biological characteristics of water

 Bacteria and viruses

 Algae
 Plankton
 Fungi

Bacteria’s are the minute single cell organisms present in water, soil and air. They cannot be seen
with naked eye and they have to be examined under microscope.

Bacteria’s are of two types such as pathogenic and non-pathogenic.

 Pathogenic bacteria causes serious health hazards as water borne diseases.

 Some of the bacteria’s are not harmful to healthy of an individual are called as non-

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pathogenic bacteria’s

Further bacteria can be classified into;

Aerobic bacteria – Thses bacteria need oxygen for their survival, reproduction and growth

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Anaerobic bacteria – can survive without oxygen

Facultative bacteria – these are between aerobics and anaerobs

Pathogens present in water is due to feces of the infected human beings. These are normally
present in colan (lower portion of intestine) of the human beings and warm and cold blooded
animals. Some of them are found in the soil and vegetation also. Such a bacteria are called as
colliforms. Therefore for the analysis purpose it is assumed that, all colifomrs are originated in the
human feces.

 Escherichia Coli (E-coli) is the predominant bacteria among the fecal coliform group. E-
coli is a parasite living only in the human or animal intestines.
 Therefore, the detection of E-coli in the drinking water is taken as the evidence of recent
pollution with human or animal feces.
 Since the non-pathogenic bacteria or coliforms live longer in water than the pathogens.

There are two tests to determine the coliforms

 Membrane filtration technique

 Most probable number method (MPN) or Multiple fermentation tube technique

Membrane Filtration Technique

 In this test, water sample is to be filtered through sterile membrane (5 to 10 micron meter
pores) on which the bacteria will be retained, if at all present.
 The filter is then rinsed with a sterile buffer solution, placed upon a pad saturated with a
suitable nutrient medium and incubated at an appropriate temperature.
 The bacteria’s which are able to grow upon the nutrient medium will produce visible
colonies can be counted, each produced colony representing one bacterium in the original
sample.

MPN Test or Multiple Tube Fermentation Technique

 Coliform bacteria ferment the lactose with the formation of gas within 48 hours at 350C.
 A broth or solution containing lactose is placed in a series of test tubes.

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 5 test tubes are then added with 10 ml of water sample in each tube. Another 5 test tubes
are mixed with 1 ml of water sample in each tube and another 5 tubes are added with 0.1
ml of water sample in each tube.

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 The test tubes are finally incubated at 35 0C for 24 hours and formation of gas in the tubes
is identified and the presence of gas will give the positive results and it indicates the
presence of coliform bacteria in the given tube.
 In case gas is not found, allow further incubation for another 24 hours and thus to notice
the results at 48 hours, which is the maximum time for release of gas by a coliform
bacteria. If gas is not evolved that shows a negative test, thereby showing the absence of
coliform bacteria in the test tube.
 After determining the number of positive test tubes, statistical methods are used to
determine the bacterial density that has the maximum probability with the given set of
constants, which represents the most probable number of coliforms, called as MPN or
MPN index.
 Thomas Equation
Thomas has given empherical formula to determine the MPN value i.e, MPN/100 ml.

BIS Standards for Drinking Water according to IS 10500-2012

SL PARAMETER DESIRABLE PERMISSIBLE UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS OUTSIDE THE
NO. LIMIT LIMIT DESIRABLE LIMITS
1 Colour, Hazen 5 15 Above 05 consumer acceptance decreases.
units
2 Odour, (TON) Un- - -
objectionable
3 pH 6.5 - 8.5 No relaxation Beyond this range the water will affect the
mucous membrane and I or water supply
system.
4 Turbidity, NTU 1 5 Above 05, consumer acceptance decreases
5 Total alkalinity as 200 600 Beyond this limit taste becomes unpleasant
CaCO3, mg/l
6 Total hardness (as 200 600 Encrustation in water supply structure and
CaCO3) mg/L adverse affect on domestic uses

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7 Chlorides (as Cl) 250 1000 Beyond this limit, taste, corrosion and
mg/L palatability are affected.
8 Total Dissolved 500 2000 Beyond this palatability decreases and may
Solids (TDS) mg/L cause gastro intestinal irritation
9 Residual, free 0.2 1 May causes eye irritation to the swimmers if
chlorine, mg/L it is excess and bad taste for the sensitive
tongue people

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10 Iron (as Fe) mg/L 0.3 No relaxation Beyond this limit taste appearances

are affected, has adverse affect on

domestic uses and water supply

Structures, and promotes iron Bacteria.
11 Calcium (as Ca) 75 200 Encrustation in water supply structure and
mg/L adverse effects on domestic use
12 Manganese (as 0.1 0.3 Beyond this limit taste / appearances
Mn) mg/L are affected, has adverse affect on domestic
uses and water supply structures
13 Sulfate (as SO4) 200 400 Beyond this causes gastro intestinal irritation
mg/L When magnesium or sodium are present
14 Nitrate (as NO3) 45 No relaxation Beyond this Mathemoglobinemia (blue baby
mg/L disease) takes place in infants
15 Fluoride, (as F) 1.0 1.5 Fluoride may be kept as low as
mg/L possible. High fluoride may cause fluorosis,
deformation of bones, tooth discolouriastion.
16 Phenolic 0.001 0.002 Beyond this, it may cause objectionable taste
and odor
compounds (as

17C6H5OH) mg/L
17 Mercury (as Hg) 0.001 No relaxation Beyond this, the water becomes toxic

mg/L
18 Cadmium (as Cd) 0.003 No relaxation Beyond this, the water becomes toxic

mg/L
19 Selenium (as Se) 0.01 No relaxation Beyond this, the water becomes toxic

mg/L
20 Arsenic (as As) 0.01 0.05 Beyond this, the water becomes toxic

mg/L
21 Cyanide (as 0.05 No relaxation Beyond this, the water becomes toxic

CN),mg/L
22 Lead (as Pb) 0.01 No relaxation Beyond this, the water becomes toxic

mg/L
23 Zinc (as Zn) mg/L 5 15 Beyond this limit it can cause astringent taste
and an opalescence in water
24 Aluminium, (as 0.03 0.2 Cumulative effect is reported to cause
Al), dementia and also causes Alzheimer disease

mg/L
25 Boron, (as Bo), 0.5 1.0 -

mg/L

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26 Magnesium, (as 30 100 Encrustation to water supply structure and

adverse effects on domestic use
Mg), mg/L
27 Chromium (as 0.05 No relaxation May be carcinogenic above this limit

Cr) mg/L
28 Copper (as Cu) 0.05 1.5 Astrigent taste, discolouration and corrosion

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mg/L of pipes, fittings and utensils will be caused

beyond this.
29 Silver 0.1 No relaxation -
30 Cadmium (as Cd), 0.003 No relaxation Beyond this, the water becomes toxic
mg/l
31 Cyanide (as CN), 0.05 No relaxation Beyond this, the water becomes toxic
mg/l
32 Nickel (as Ni), 0.02 No relaxation Beyond this, the water becomes toxic
mg/l

WATER BORNE DISEASES AND THEIR CONTROL

Water borne diseases are those diseases which spread primarily through contaminated water. In
which the water is the main media responsible for the growth of microorganisms, carrier and
spreading of diseases.

Important water borne diseases are;

1) Diseases caused by “Bacterial infections” :

 Typhoid and Paratyphoid fever (caused by Salmonella typhi bacteria)

 Cholera (caused by Vibrio – cholera bacteria)
 Bacillary dysentery (Shiga bacillus)

2) Diseases caused by “Viral Infections” :

 Hepatitis or Jaundice ( Hepatitis virus)

 Poliomyelities (Polio virus)

3) Diseases caused by “Protozoal infection” :

 Amoebic dysentery (Entamoeba histolytic germ)

Water is the prime media responsible for the start and spread of these diseases, they are termed as
water borne diseases

Preventive Measures

 The water supplies of the town or the city must be thoroughly checked and
disinfected before supplying to the public.
 The water pipelines should be frequently tested and inspected, so as to detect any
leakage and possible source of contamination from nearby surroundings.
 While laying or designing the water distribution system, attempts should be made as
to keep the sewer lines and water lines as far away as possible.
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 Public awareness or participation

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STREAM SAMPLING
“The collection of representative sample of stream water for its analysis is called as sampling”

Objectives of Sampling

 The sample should have the representative quality of the stream water.
 The collected volume to be transported conveniently and handled in the laboratory while
still accurately representing the material being started.
 Great care should be exercised while sampling to ensure that, the sample is representative
of body of water or wastewater under examination and to avoid accidental contamination of
the sample during collection and transportation.

Types of Samples
Three types of samples are generally collected.

1) Grab sample
2) Composite sample
3) Integrated sample

1) Grab Sample

These are the samples collected at a specific location in a certain time. They represent the
composition of the stream water at that time and at that location.

If the environmental medium varies spatially or temporarily, then a single grab sample is not
representative and more samples need to be collected.

Fig: Grab Sample Collection

2) Composite Sample

This sample is the mixture of grab samples collected at one specific point at different times. These
samples are useful for observing the average results.

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The whole composite may be measured or random samples from the composites may be withdrawn
and measured.

Individual samples are collected in wide mouth bottles in every hour and mixed in volume
proportional to the flow.

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Fig: Collection of Composite Sample

3) Integrated Samples

Integrated samples are a mixture of grab samples collected from different points at a specific time
and mixed in equal volumes.

Fig: Collection of Integrated sample

Sampling
Frequency
Sampling frequency should be such that, no change in quality could be noticed. More the number
of samples collected more accurate will be the mean value. However, a sampling schedule is a
compromisation between accuracy and the funds, personal availability etc.
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WATER TREATMENT
The amount and the type of treatment will depend on the quality of raw water and the standards of
quality to be required after treatment. The treatment process should be designed such that, they
should treat the water up to the desired standard for which it is to be used.

Objectives of the Treatment of Water

The main objective of the treatment processes is to remove impurities of raw water and bring the
quality of water to the required standards.

 To remove the dissolved gasses and colour of water.

 To remove the objectionable taste and odour from the water
 To kill all the pathogens, which are harmful to the human health.
 To make water fit for domestic uses, industries.
 To eliminate the corrosive properties of the water.
 To remove the harmful or toxic metals from the water.

Treatment of water – Flow Chart

1) Screening – Screens are provided at the entry of water to intake structure and intakes to remove
debris and floating materials and larger solid matter.

2) Aeration – Aeration of water is necessary to increase the dissolved oxygen content in water and
to remove carbon dioxide and H2S, and objectionable taste and odour.

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3) Sedimentation – The settlement of the suspended particles in a sedimentation tank by providing

the certain detention time is called as sedimentation or settling.

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4) Sedimentation aided with Coagulation – Very fine suspended matter and colloidal solids that
are not settled at plain settling tank can be removed by adding certain chemicals called as
coagulants.

5) Filtration – The process of passing the water through the granular media as sand to remove the
very fine suspended particles and the certain diseases causing bacteria is called as filtration.

6) Disinfection – To provide a palatable and safe drinking water to the public, water has to be
treated with disinfectants to remove the disease causing bacteria’s. This process is called
disinfection.

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MODULE – III
SCREENING
Screens are generally provided in front of the pumps or the intake structures to remove the large
sized particles such as debris, floating matter, trees and its branches etc.

There are two types of screens such as coarse screens and fine screens.

1) Coarse Screens

 Coarse screens are generally provided in front of the fine screens to avoid the blockage of
the fine screens.
 Coarse screens consist of parallel iron rods placed vertically or at a slight slope at about 2
to 10 cm centre to centre.
 The coarse screens are normally kept at 450 C to 600 C angle to increase the opening area
and to reduce the flow velocity.

2) Fine Screens

 Fine screens are made up of fine or a perforated metal plate with openings less than 1 cm
wide.
 The coarse screens first remove the bigger floating bodies and the organic solids and the
fine screens than remove the fine suspended solids.
 The fine screens normally get clogged and are to be cleaned frequently.
 The flow velocity through the screens should be 0.8 to 1 m/sec.
 The material collected on the screens that can be removed by mechanically or manually.

AERATION
“It is the process of bringing the water in intimate contact with air, to absorb oxygen and to remove
undesirable gasses, taste and odour from the water”.

 In the aeration process, make the water to be in contact with the air, so as to absorb the
oxygen from the air and to remove the CO2, H2S gas.
 It may also helps in killing bacteria to certain content.
 It removes iron and manganese to a certain extent from the water.

Objectives of Aeration
Following are the objectives of the aeration process;

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 To increase the dissolved oxygen content in the water.

 To remove the dissolved gasses such as CO2, H2S, CH4 etc.
 To remove objectionable odour and the taste present in water.
 To remove iron and manganese.

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 To remove the oils and decomposing products of algae and thus helps in removing the
odour, taste and colour due to their presence.

The aeration can be carried out in following methods

 By spray nozzles
 By permitting the water to trickle over cascades
 By air diffusion
 By Trickling Beds

1) By Spray Nozzles

In this method, the water is sprinkled in air or atmosphere through special nozzles which breaks the
water into droplets, thus permitting the escape of dissolved gasses.

Carbon dioxide gas is thus considerably removed up to 90% in this method. However, considerable
head of water is required for working of these nozzles, which functions efficiently at a pressure of
10 to 14 m head of water.

2) By Permitting the Water to Trickle over Cascades (Cascade Aerator)

 This is also called as freefall aerator.

 In this method, the water is made to fall through a certain height of about 1 to 3 m over a
series of steps with a fall about 0.15 to 0.3 m in each step.
 The aerator should be installed in open air.
 The cascade aerators are efficient in raising the dissolved oxygen content of water but CO2
can be removed about 60 – 70% only.
 In a cascade aerator, the rate of flow may vary between 20 to 100 m3/h/m length of weir.
 To allow entrained air to mix in the water, each receiving basin should have a pool of water
of water of depth 0.3 m to 0.5 m.

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3) By Air Diffusion

In this method, perforated pipes are fixed at the bottom of the settling tanks. The compressed air is
blown through the pipes which come out in the form of bubbles.

During the upward movement of the air bubbles, oxygen gets absorbed by the water.

4) By Trickling Beds or Slat Tray Beds.

In this method, the water is allowed trickle down the beds of coke supported over the perforated
bottom trays and arranged vertically in series. Generally three beds are used, the depth of each
being about 0.6 m with a clear distance of about 0.45 m in between. The water is applied from the
top through perforated distribution pipes and allowed trickle down. During this downward
movement, the water gets mixed up with air, and aeration takes place.

This method gives better results than what can be obtained by cascades, but is effective than the
method of spray nozzles.

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The oxford college of engineering

SEDIMENTATION
“Sedimentation is a process of settling of particles in a basin”

Or

“The basin in which flow of water is retarded is called as sedimentation tank or basin or clarifier”

Most of the impurities present in water have a specific gravity greater than the water. In still water,
the impurities try to settle down due to gravity, although in normal raw supplies they remain in
suspension because of the turbulence in water.

If the turbulence is retarded by offering storage to the water, these impurities will settle down at the
bottom of the tank. This is the principal behind the sedimentation.

Theory of Sedimentation or Principal of Sedimentation

1) Velocity of Flow: The velocity of flow of water carries the particles horizontally. As the flow
area increases, the velocity will be decreases and hence more easily the particle will settle down.

2) Viscosity of Water: the viscosity varies inversely with the temperature, warm water is less
viscous and therefore offers less resistance to the settlement of the particle. However, the
temperature of water cannot be controlled to any appreciable extent in water purification processes
and hence this factor is generally ignored.

3) The Size, Shape and Specific Gravity of the Particle:

The greater is the specific gravity of the particle, more readily the particle will settle down and
spherical particle will settle readily.

Very small sized particle will settle very slowly. Therefore the size and shape of the particle affect
the settling of the particle.

Plain Sedimentation tank and its types

Sedimentation basins are generally made up of reinforced concrete and they may be rectangular or
circular in shape.

A plain sedimentation tank can remove about 70% of the suspended impurities present in water.

The sedimentation tanks can be basically divided into two types:

 Horizontal flow tank

 Vertical or up-flow tank

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1) Horizontal Flow Tanks

The direction of flow of water in this tank is horizontal. In the design of horizontal flow tanks,
equal velocity of flow is maintained at all the points in the settling zone.

There are two types of horizontal flow tanks;

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 Rectangular Tank with Longitudinal Flow

 Circular Tank with Radial Flow

a) Rectangular Tank with Longitudinal Flow

In this type of tank provided with mechanical scrapping devices, to scrap the sludge to the sludge
pit located usually towards the sludge to the sludge the influent end, from where it is continuously
or periodically removed without stopping the working of tank. Such tanks are called as
“continuous flow type sedimentation tank”. In this type of tank, the flow velocity is only reduced
and the water is not brought to complete rest.

In other type of tanks, mechanical scrappers may not be provided and the tank may have to be
cleaned by stopping the operation of the tank. In this type of tank, the raw water is simply stored
and kept at rest for a certain period of about 24 hours. During this period, the suspended particles
will settle down to the bottom of the tank.

The clean water from the tank is then taken out and tank is cleaned off the settled silt. Then the
tank is again filled with the water to continue the next operation and this type of basins are also
called as “fill and draw type sedimentation tank”

This necessitates the commissioning of atleast two tanks. Such intermittent tanks are usually not
preferred in modern day plants, as they lead to wastage of time and require more labour.

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Therefore, continuous flow type tanks are used in these days. The working of such a tank is simple
as the water enters from one end and comes out from the other end. The velocity sufficiently
reduced by providing sufficient length of travel.

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b) Circular Tank with Radial Flow

In this type of tank the water enters at the centre of the tank into a circular well provided with
multiple ports, from which it emerges out to flow radially outwards in all directions equally. The
water flows horizontally and radially towards the periphery of the circular tank.

The aim here is to provide uniform radial flow with decreasing horizontal velocity towards the
periphery from where the water is withdrawn from the tank through the effluent structure.

The sludge is scrapped to the central sump mechanically and continuously from where it is
withdrawn during operation.

2) Vertical or Upflow Sedimentation Tank

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They are square or rectangular in plan and have hopper bottoms. The influent enters at the bottom
of the tank. The upflow velocity decreases with increased cross sectional area. The clarified water
is withdrawn through the circumferential weir.

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When used with coagulants, the flocculation takes place in the bottom of the tank leading to
formation of blanket of floc through which the rising floc must pass. Because of these phenomena
these tanks are also called upflow sludge blanket clarifiers.

Design Consideration in Plain Sedimentation Tank

1) Overflow Rate or Overflow Velocity

It is the flow velocity at which the tank is designed to operate.

The flow velocity in the tank is called as overflow rate because water is flowing over the top of the
tank into the weir system.

This term is also called as surface loading rate i.e, discharge per unit area of plan (m 3/d.m2)

Vo = Discharge/ Area

Usually overflow rate ranges between 12-18 m3/d.m2 of plan area for plain sedimentation tank and
between 24-30 m3/d.m2 of plan area for coagulation aided with sedimentation tank.

As long as the settling velocity of the particle (Vs) is greater than the Vo, the particles will settle
down and can be removed from the bottom of the tank, regardless the depth of the tank.

“The particle settling is independent of the depth sedimentation tank”

2) Detention Time (t)

Another important term considered in the design of sedimentation tank is detention time or
detention period.

“it is the average theoretical time required for the water to flow through the tank length” or “it is
the average time for which the water is detained in the tank”.

Hence it is the ratio of the volume of the basin to the rate of flow through the basin.

Detention time for rectangular tank,

D.T = (volume of the tank)/(rate of flow)

D.T = (BLH)/Q

Where B= width of the tank

L= length of the tank

H = Depth of the tank

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Q= discharge through the tank

Detention time for circular tank,

D.T = d2(0.011d + 0.785H)/Q

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Where, d= diameter of the tank

H = vertical depth at wall

Detention time is 4 to 8 hours for plain sedimentation tank and 2 to 4 hours for coagulation
sedimentation tank.

The width of the tank is kept equal to 10 m and should not exceed to 12 m and the length of the
tank generally taken as 4 times the width of the tank.

The horizontal flow velocity ranges between 0.15 m/minute to 0.9 m/minute, normally kept at
about 0.3 m/minute.

3) Displacement efficiency
The average time at which a batch of water passing through the atnk is calleda s flow through
period.

The flow through period always less than the detention period.

“The rate of flow through period to the detention period” is called as displacement efficiency.

Displacement Effciiency = (flow through period)/(Detention period)

It ranges between 0.25 to 0.5.

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The oxford college of engineering

SEDIMENTATION AIDED WITH COAGULATION

Very fine suspended particles and colloidal cannot be settle down in the sedimentation tank. So
that by altering the size of the size of the particles converted into flocculated particles. For this
purpose certain chemicals are used called as coagulants.

When added the coagulants to the water after thorough mixing, forms a gelatinous precipitate
called as “floc”. Then the very fine suspended particles attracted towards the floc and their size
becomes increases to form a flocculated particles.

 The colloidal particle possesses, surface charges on their surface e. most of the colloidal
particles in water are negatively charged. The stationary charged layer on the surface is
surrounded by a bound layer of water.
 Thus bound layer of water is called as stern layer. This layer has a ions of opposite charge
drawn from the bulk of the solution, produce s a rapid drop in potential called as stern
potential.
 A more gradual drop, called the zeta potential occurs between the shear surface of the
bound water layer and the point of electroneutrality in the solution.
 The surface charge on colloidal particles gives them long term stability and hence the
particles which will settle down, but they remain in susupension.
 Coagulataion is a chemical technmique whjich destabilizezs the charged colloidal aprticles.
 Flocculation is the slow mixing technique which promotes the agglomeration of stabiliserd

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particles.
 The entire process of addition of chemicals (coagulants) and mixing (flocculation) is called
as coagulation. The coagulated water is finally made to pass through the sedimentation
tank, where the flocculated particles will settle down and are thus removed.

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 When the raw water has turbidity greater than 30 to 50 mg/l then it necessitates the
coagulation.
 But in actual practice, plain sedimentation is rarely used these days and the coagulation
before the sedimentation is followed and universally accepted in all major treatment palnts.

Chemicals used for Coagulation

Various chemicals like alum, iron salts (ferrous sulphate, ferric chloride, ferric sulphate) etc, are
generally used as coagulants. These chemicals are most effective when water is slightly alkaline.

In the absence of such an alkalinity in raw supplies, external alkalies like sodium carbonate or lime
etc are added to the water so as to make it slightly alkaline and thus it increase the effectiveness of
the coagulants.

1) Alum :

 Alum chemical name is aluminum sulphate (Al2(SO4)3.18H2O)

 When alum added to the raw water , it reacts with the bicarbonate alkalinities, which are
generally present in raw water supplies, so as to form a gelatinous precipitate (floc) of
aluminum hydroxide
 This floc attracts other fine particles of suspended matter and colloidal matter and thus in
their size and finally settle down to the sedimentation tank.

Al2(SO4)3.18H2O + 3Ca(HCO3)2 3CaSO4 + 2Al(OH)3 + 6CO2

 The above equation shows that, addition of alum to water imparts permannat hardness to it,
in the form of calcium sulphate. The carbon dioxide gas evolved causes corrosiveness.
 The amount of alum required for coagulation depends on the turbidity and colour of the
raw water. The use of optimum dosage of coagulant is determined by laboratory tests.
 The alum dosage of coagulant is determined by laboratory tests and it may vary from 5
mg/l for clear water and 85 mg/l for highly turbid water.
 Alum has proved to be effective coagulant and is now extensively used throughout the
world.
 It is cheap, forms excellent stable floc and doesn’t require any skilled supervision for
handling.
 The water obtained is quite clear, as it helps in reducing the taste and odour and turbidity.
 The main drawback is disposal of alum sludge.

2) Copperas as Coagulant

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The oxford college of engineering

 Copperas is a ferrous sulphate with a lime chemical formula FeSO4.7H2O

 Copperas is generally added to raw water in conjunction with

lime FeSO4.7H2O + Ca(OH)2 CaSO4 + Fe(OH)2 + 7H2O

Ferrous hydroxide formed is further gets oxidized

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4Fe(OH)2 +O2 + H2O 4Fe(OH)3

Therefore ferric hydroxide forms the floc and thus helps in sedimentation.

 Copperas is extensively used as s coagulant for raw water that are not coloured.
 It is generally cheaper than alum and works effectively in the pH range 8.5 and above, but
for a coloured water does not give a satisfactory results

3) Use of Chlorinated Copperas as Coagulant

When chlorine is added with copperas (ferrous sulphate), it will yield ferric sulphate and ferric
chloride.

The resultant combination of ferric sulphate and ferric chloride is called as chlorinated copperas
and is a effective coagulant for removing colour at lower pH.

Chlorinated copperas and lime has effectiveness in coagulation.

The resultant ferric hydroxide forms floc and helps in sedimentation. Ferric sulphate is quite
effective in the pH range 4 to 7 and above 9 and ferric chloride is quite effective in the pH range
to 6.5 and above 8.5.

The combination has proved to be very effective coagulant for treating low pH water.

Comparison of alum and iron salts as coagulants

The alum and iron salts having their own advantages and disadvantages

 Iron salts produces heavy floc and can remove suspended matter effectively than the alum.
 Iron slats are good oxidizing agents and can remove hydrogen sulphide and tastes and
odour from the water.

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The oxford college of engineering

 Iron salts can be used over a wide range of pH values.

 Iron slats cause staining and promote the growth of iron bacteria in the distribution system.
 Iron salts imparts more corrosiveness to water than that which is imparted by alum.
 The handling and storage of iron salts require more skill and control, as they are corrosive
in nature. Whereas no such skilled supervision is required for handling alum.

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

JAR TEST

Laboratory Test for Determining the Optimum Dosage of Coagulant

 The sample of water to be tested is placed in a number of jars each having a capacity of 1
liter, normally six jars are used.
 Different quantity of coagulant are then added to each jar. Then the driving unit is started .
the paddles connected with driving shaft through stirring rods placed inside the jars are
thus made to rotate.
 Then the formation of the floc in each jar is noted.
 The amount of coagulant in the jar which produces a good floc with the least amount of
coagulant indicates the optimum dosage.

ELEMENTS OF CLARIFLOCCULATOR or COAGULATION SEDIMENTATION TANK

The coagulation sedimentation tank is also called as clariflocculator contains following four units;

 Feeding Devices
 Mixing Basin
 Flocculation Tank
 Settling Tank

The chemical coagulant either in dry or in solution form is fed into the raw water through the
feeding device. This mixture is then thoroughly agitated and mixed in the mixing basin.

The floc which iis formed in the mixing basin due to the reaction between water and chemical
coagulant and is then allowed to agglomerate in the flocculation tank

The flocculated water is then finally passed into sedimebntaion tank where these flocculated

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particles settledfown and removed.

The resultant water of low turbidity can be taken out through the outlet of the sedimentation tank,
directly to the filtration unit.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

1) Feeding Devices

There are two types of feeding devices such as dry feeding device and wet feeding device.

a) Dry Feeding Device

 These are the tanks with a hopper bottom and agitating plates are placed inside a tank so as
to prevent the arching or bridging of the coagulants.
 The powdered coagulant is then filled into the tank and is then allowed to fall into the
mixing basin.
 The dosage of the coagulant added is regulated by toothed wheel or a helical screew.
 The speed of the toothed wheel or helical screew is inturn controlled by connec ting it to a
venture device installed in the raw water pipes bringing water to the mixinhg absin.
 The quantity of the coagulant released is, thus controlled in propiortion to the quantity of
raw water entering the mixing tank.

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The oxford college of engineering

b) Wet Feeding Device

 In wet feeding, the solution of required strength of coagulant is prepared and stored in a
tank, from where it is allowed to trickle down into the mixing tank through an outlet. The
level of the coagulant in the storage tank is maintained by the float controlled ball valve.
 When the rate of inflow of raw water enters into the mixing basin changes, the rate entry
coagulant also should changes.
 In order to make these two flows in proportion to each other a conical plug arrangement is
provided.
 The mixing basin and the float chamber are interconnected together, so that the water level
remains the same in both of them.
 As the flow of raw water increases, the depth of water and its level increases in the mixing
tank. Correspondingly the water level in the float cahmber increases and there by lifting the
float of the float chamber. As the float rises, the pinion and pulley rotates in the same
direction, thereby lifting the conical plug and allowing more quantity of coagulant solution
to fall down into the mixing basin.
 When the flow of water decreases, the conical plug descends down and allows the feeding
to continue at a lower rate.
 Thus, the constant head coagulant feeding tank automatically controls the dose of
coagulant.

2) Mixing Basin

After addition of coagulant, the mixture is thoroughly mixed, so that the coagulant gets fully
dispersed into the entire mass of water. This agiation of water gets achieved by thorough mixing.
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The oxford college of engineering

There are two types of mixing basins

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1) Mixing Basin with baffle walls

The baffle type mixing basins are rectangular tanks which are divided by baffle walls. The baffles
may either be provided in such a way that the water flows horizontally around their ends or they
may be provided as to make the water move vertically over and under the baffles.

The hinderness and disturbances created by the provision of baffles in the path of flow, give it
sufficient agitation, as to cause necessary mixing to develop the floc.

2) Mixing Basin Equipped with Mechanical Devices

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The oxford college of engineering

The meachanically agitated mixing basins provide the best type of mixing as also the flocculating
devices. The chemical added to raw water is vigorously mixed and agitated by a flash mixer for its
rapid dispersion in water and the water is then transferred to a flocculation tank provided with a
slow mixer.

Mixing involves high degree of turbulence and power dissipation.

A typical flash mixer consist of rectangular tank provided with an impeller fixed to an impeller
shaft. The impeller is driven by an electric motor and it revolves at a high speed inside the tank.

The coagulant brought by the coagulant pipe and is discharged just under the rotating fan. The raw
water is sepeartely brought from the inlet end and is deflected towards the moving impeller by a
deflection wall. The thoroughly mixed water is taken out from the outlet end. A drain valve is also
provided to remove the sludge from the bottom of the flash mixer.

3) Flocculation Tank or Flocculator

The best floc will form when the mixture of water and coagulant are violently agitated followed by
a relatively slow and gentle stirring to permit build up and agglomeration of the floc particles.

Therefore, from the mixing basin the water is taken to a flocculation tank called a flocculator,
where it is given a slow stirring motion.

Rectangular tanks fitted with paddles operated by electric motors can best serve this purpose

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

FILTRATION
To remove or to reduce the remaining impurities still further and to produce potable and palatable
water, the water is filtered through the beds of fine granular materials such as sand.

“The process of passing the water through the beds of granular material is known as filtration”.

Filtration may help in removing the colour, odour, turbidity and pathogenic bacteria from the
water.

Theory of Filtration or Mechanism of Filtration or Principle of Filtration

The filters purify the water under four different processes:

(i) Mechanical Straining:

The suspended particles present in water and which are of bigger size than the size of the voids in
the sand layers of the filter cannot pass through these voids and get arrested in them. Therefore, the
resultant water will be free from impurities.

(ii) Flocculation and Sedimentation:

The filters can remove even particles smaller than the size of the voids present in the filter.

The void spaces acts like tiny coagulation-sedimentation tanks. The colloidal matter arrested in
thses voids is a gelatinous matter and therefore, attract other finer particles. These finer particles
thus settle down in the voids and get removed.

(iii) Biological Metabolism:

Certain microorganisms and bacteria’s are generally present in the voids of filters. They may reside
either initially as coatings over sand grains or they may be present during the initial process of
filtration.

These organisms require organic impurities as their food for their survival. Therefore, these
organisms utilize such impurities and convert them into harmless compounds by the process of
biological metabolism. The harmless compounds generally form a layer on the top Schmutzdelte or
dirty skin. This layer further helps in absorbing and straining out the impurities.

(iv) Electrolytic Changes

According to this theory, a filter helps in changing the chemical characteristics of water. The sand
grains of the filter media and the impurities in water carry electrical charges of opposite nature.

When these oppositely charged particles and the impurities come in contact with each other,
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thereby changing the character of the water and making it purer. After a certain interval, the
electrical charges of sand grains get exhausted and have to be restored by cleaning the filter.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Filter Materials
i) Sand

Either fine or coarse generally used as filter media. The layers of sand may be supported on gravel,
which permits then filtered water to move freely to the underdarins, and allows the washwater to
move uniformly upward.

The filter sand generally obtained from rocks like quartzite and should contain the following
properties.

 It should be free from dirt and other impurities.

 It should be uniform in nature and size.
 It should be hard and resistant.
 It should be such as not to lose more than 5% of its weight after being placed in
hydrochloric acid for 24 hours.

The selection of the correct effective size (D 10) is very important, because too smaller size will lead
to very frequent clogging of filters, and will give very low filtration rates. Similarly, too large size
will permit the suspended particles and bacteria to pass through it, without being removed.

ii) Gravel

The gravel which may be used below the sand should be hard, durable, free from impurities and
should have a density of about 1600 kg/m3.

Types of Filters
The filters are classified based on their rate of filtration;

 Slow sand gravity filter

 Rapid sand gravity filter
 Pressure filter

SLOW SAND GRAVITY FILTER

In the older days slow sand filters were used to treat the raw water and the rapid sand filters
replaced it in the modern days.

However, they may be still preferred on smaller plants at warm palces, where covers on filters are
not required to protect the filter from freezing.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Construction of Slow Sand Filter

The various parts of the slow sand filter are discussed below;

i) Enclosure tank:

 It consists of an open water tight rectangular tank, made of masonry or concrete.

 The bed slope is kept at about 1 in 100 towards the central drain. The depth of the
tank varies from 2.5 to 3.5 m.
 The surface area of the tank may varies from 100 to 2000 m2, depending upon the quantity
of the water to be treated.

ii) Filter Media:

 The filter media consists of about sand layers about 90 to 110 cm in depth and placed
over a gravel. The effective size of the sand (D 10) varies from 0.2 to 0.4 mm and the
uniformity coefficient (Cu or D60/D10) varies from 1.8 to 3.0.
 The top 15 cm layer of sand is very fine sand is kept and uniform in grain size. The finer
the sand, the purer will be the obtained filtered water, as more impurities and bacteria’s
will be removed.

iii) Base Material:

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The oxford college of engineering

 The base material is gravel and it supports the sand bed

 It consists of about 30 to 90 cm depth of different size gravels, placed in layers. Generally
3 to 4 layers each of 15 – 20 cm depth are used.
 The coarsest gravel used in the bottom layer and the finest gravel is to be at the top.

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

iv) Under Drainage System

 The gravel support is laid on the top of an under-drainage system. It consists of a

common central drain and a lateral drain.
 The lateral drains are porous drains or open jointed pipe drains placed 3 to 5 m apart on
the bottom floor and sloping towards a main covered central drain.
 The lateral drains collect the filtered water and then the water will be discharged into
the main drain and which leads the water to the filtered well.
 Sometimes, instead of placing it in the centre, the main drain is placed along one side of
the tank and lateral slopes towards it.

v) Inlet and Outlet Arrangement

 An inlet chamber is constructed for admitting the effluent from the plain sedimentation
tank without disturbing the sand layers of the filter and to distribute it uniformly over the
filter bed.
 A filtered water well is also constructed on the outlet side inorder to collect the
filtered water coming out from the main under-drains.

Operation and Cleaning of Slow Sand Filter

 The water from the plain sedimentation tank is allowed to enter into the inlet chamber
and get distributed uniformly over the filter bed.
 The water percolates through the filter bed or and gets purified during the process of
filtration. Then water enters the lateral drains through the gravel layer as filtered
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water.
 From the lateral drains water gets discharged into the central main drain and from the
main drain it gets collected in the filtered water well and it can be taken to the
storage tank.
 The loss of head or filter head is generally limited to 0.7 to 1.2m.

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The oxford college of engineering

Cleaning of Slow sand Filter

 The cleaning of slow sand filter is done by scrapping and removing the top sand layer of
about 1.5 to 3 m.
 Then the top surface is finally raked, roughened, cleaned and washed with good water. The
amount of water required is generally small in the order of0.2 to 0.6% of the total water
filtered. Cleaning is repeated until the sand depth reaches to 40 cm. Then more sand is
added.
 A lot of manual labour is required in cleaning such filters but very small quantity of wash
water is required.
 After cleaning, the filter si again used and raw water is admitted into it, but the effluents
obtained in the beginning will not be pure and are not used for about 24 to 36 hour until
formation of a film around the sand grains ahs takes place.
 Since the filtering action of the slow sand filters depends largely upon the formation of this
film, the effluents obtained in the beginning when such a film is absent, shall not be pure.
 The intervals between the successive two cleaning is normally one to three months and is
depending on the nature of impurities present in water and size of the filtering sand.

Rate of Filtration of Slow Sand filter

The rate of filtration obtained from the slow sand filter ranges 100 to 200 litres/hour/m2 of filter
area.

Efficiency and Performance of Slow Sand Filter

 Slow sand filters are highly efficient in removing bacteria and other suspended solids from
raw water and the extent of bacterial removal is up to 98%.
 These filters also remove the odour and tastes, particularly those caused by the presence of
organic impurities such as algae and plankton.
 However, these filters are less efficient in removing colour of raw water.
 These filters can remove turbidities only 50 mg/l and therefore, they are not suitable for
water having turbidities greater than 50 mg/l

Uses of Slow Sand Filter

 Suitable only for smaller plants and for purifying water with low colour, low turbidity and
low bacterial contents.
 More area of land is required.
 Preferred only for smaller village supplies and for individual industrial applications.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

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The oxford college of engineering

RAPID SAND GRAVITY FILTER

The slow sand filters can yield at a very slow rate and requires huge quantities of filtering materials
and such filters requires larger space which may prove to be very costly. Therefore, to increase the
rate of filtration we are using rapid sand filters or mechanical sand filters.

Construction of Rapid Gravity Filters

The various types of the rapid gravity filters are discussed below;

i) Enclosure Tank:

 It consists of an open water tight rectangular tank made of masonry or concrete. The
depth of the tank may vary from 2.5 to 3.5 m. in order to achieve uniform distribution of
water, the area of the filter units should not be kept larger and is generally limited to about
10 to 80 m2 for each unit.
 There should be at least two filter units in any plant and for a plant of more than 9 million
litres per day capacity, no single unit should have a capacity greater than one-fourth of the
capacity of the plant.

ii) Filter Media:

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 The filtering media consists of sand layers of about 60 to 90 cm in depth, and placed
over a gravel support. The effective size (D10) of the sand varies from 0.35 to 0.55 mm
and the uniformity coefficient ranges between 1.3 to 1.7.

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 The sand must be laid in layers. The finer variety should be used towards the top
and coarser variety towards the bottom.

iii) Base Material:

 The base material is gravel and it supports the sand. The gravel bed in addition to giving
the support, it also distributes the wash water. It consists of 60 to 90 cm thick gravels of
different sizes placed in layers. Generally, five to six layers, each of 10 to 15 cm in depth
are used. The coarsest gravel used in the bottom most layer and the finest gravel is used in
the top most layer.
 The size of the gravel in the bottom most layer is thus generally kept between 20 to 40
mm, in the intermediate layers between 12 to 20 mm and 6 to 12 mm and in the top most
layer between is between 3 to 6 mm.

iv) Under Drainage System:

In slow sand filter under drainage system is provided only to receive and collect the filtered water.
Whereas, in rapid gravity filters, the under drainage systems serves two purposes, such as (i) to
receive and collect the filtered water and (ii) to allow the backwashing water for cleaning the filter.

Under drainage should be capable of passing the wash water upward at a rate of about 300 – 900

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litres/minute/m2 of filter area.

Lateral drains receive the water from filter bed and it discharges into a central manifold.

v) Other Appurtenances

It includes wash water troughs, air compressors and rate controller.

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The dirty water which comes out of the filter after cleaning it is collected in wash water troughs
or gutters and carried to the main gutter.

They should be provided in such a depth that it is higher the sand top surface otherwise sand
may be washed out of the filter and the troughs are provided of about 1.5 to 2.0 m apart.

During backwashing the filter, the sand grains are agitated by compressed air supply for 4
minutes of about 600 to 800 l/minute/m2 of filter area.

Working and Cleaning of Rapid Gravity Filter

The working of a rapid gravity filter includes various valves;

Valve 1 is opened during filtration, which leads to the water of the coagulation sedimentation basin
to enter the inlet chamber of the filter. This water gets filtered through the filter beds and the
filtered water can be taken out from the main drain by opening valve 4. Thus when filter is in
working condition, only these two valves shall be kept open and all other valves kept closed.

Backwashing:

 Excessive loss of head indicates the cleaning of the filter media necessary.
 During cleaning or backwash, the wash water sent back upward through the filter beds.
This forced upward movement of wash water and compressed air will agitate the sand
particles and thus removing impurities from it.
 Valve 1 and 4 are closed and valve 5 and 6 are opened. The wash water and compressed air
is forced upward and valve 5 is closed after supplying the required amount of air.
 The dirty water from the washings enters into the wash water troughs and is removed by
opening the valve 2, through the inlet chamber into the wash water gutter. This process is
continued for 3 to 5 minutes.
 After washing valve 2 and 6 is to be closed and valve 1 and 3 are opened. Then water
enters the valve 1 but the filtered water in the beginning should not be collected and
washed for a few minutes through valve 3 to the gutter. This is necessary because the
remains of the wash water must be removed from the voids of the filter and a surface mat
must be allowed to form on sand.
 Then valve 3 is to be closed and valve 4 is opened to get the filtered water again. The entire
backwashing and maintaining of filtered supplies takes about 15 minutes and the filter unit
must be shutdown during this time.
 About 2 to 5 % of the total water filtered is required for backwashing.
 The rapid gravity filters have to get clogged very frequently and have to be washed every
24 to 48 hours.

Loss of Filtration Head and Necessity of Cleaning

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The water percolating through the filter moves down ward under the force of gravity. The motion
is opposed by the resistance offered by the sand grains and the impurities arrested in them.
Therefore, the percolating water loses some of head.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

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The oxford college of engineering

The loss of head can be easily computed by knowing the water level in the filter and in the outlet.
The difference between the two heads will give the loss of head called filter head.

By inserting piezometer, measure the pressure head.

Operational Troubles in Rapid Gravity Filter

There are three common operational troubles occur during the operation of rapid sand gravity
filter.

 Air Binding
 Formation of Mud Balls
 Cracking of Filters

i) Air Binding:

The fall of mercury level in the piezometer inserted in the outlet pipe below the centre line of the
pipe, indicates the presence and extent of negative pressure.

The negative pressure so developed, tends to release the air dissolved in water. It causes the
formation of bubbles, which stick to the sand grains, and thereby seriously affecting the working of
the filter. This phenomena is called as “air binding”, as the air binds the filter and stops its
functioning, thereby reducing the rate of filtration considerably. The escape of air into the filter
media to form bubbles, leading to air bubbles

A remedial measure to avoid air binding is to backwash the filter media frequently.

ii) Formation of Mud Balls:

The mud from the impurities of the water accumulates as a dense mat on the water surface.
During inadequate washing of the filter, this mud may sink down into the gravel bed, thus
interfering with the upward movement of wash water during cleaning.

The high velocities created around the edges of these balls also displace the gravel and thereby
forming mounds. Thus, when once the mud ball formation starts they go on increasing in number,
until the entire space in the filter box gets filled up with them.

Remedial measures adopted to control the mud ball formation are following;

 Mud balls may be broken down with some mechanical rakes and the broken mud
particles are washed off.
 Mud balls can also broken by water using a 10 mm dia pipe having a pointed out closed
end to provide water under pressure.
 Compressed air sour during backwashing for about 4 minutes supported with
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manual surface raking may help in effective removal of mud balls.

 By caustic soda treatment of filter bed.
 When the filter gets badly clogged and damaged, then it may have to be totally replaced.

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The oxford college of engineering

ii) Cracking of filters

 The fine sand contained in the top layers of the filter bed, shrinks and causes
development of shrinkage cracks in the sand bed.
 These cracks are more prominent near the wall junctions.
 With the use of filter, the loss of head and the pressure on the sand bed goes on
increasing which further goes on increasing these cracks.
 The floc, mud and other impurities arrested in the filter, penetrate deep into the filter
through these cracks, and thus impairing both the washing of the filter and the
efficiency of the filtration.

Rate of Filtration

The rate of filtration obtained from the rapid gravity filter is very high and is generally in the order
of 3000 to 6000 l/hr/m2 of filter area

This high rate of filtration leads to considerable savings of space as well as filter materials.

Efficiency and Performance of Rapid Gravity Filters

 Less efficient in removing bacteria and turbidities compared to the slow sand filter
 They can remove about 80 – 90% of the bacterial load present in water. The
remaining bacteria rae removed in disinfection units.
 They can remove turbidities to about 35 – 40 mg/l.
 But since the water entering these filters is given pretreatments in coagulation
sedimentation tanks, they are comparatively less turbid. Such turbidities can be
easily removed by these filters and brought to permissible limits.

Uses of rapid Gravity Filters

 Most economical method

 Used for treating public supplies, especially for large towns and cities.

Comparison between Slow Sand Filter and rapid Sand Gravity Filter:
Sl. Item Slow Sand Filter Rapid Sand Filter
No.
1 Pre- Water from plain Coagulation, flocculation and
treatment sedimentation or raw water sedimentation is a must.
required and should not coagulated
water

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2 Filter media Grain size (D10) = 0.2 to 0.4 Grain size (D10) = 0.35 to 0.55 mm,
mm, depth of sand bed = 90 to depth of sand bed = 60 to 90 cm
110 cm
3 Base Gravel, 30 to 75 cm depth, Gravel, 60 to 90 cm depth and 3 to
material size of gravel is 3 to 65 mm 40 mm size.
4 Under Laid in order to receive Laid in order to receive filtered
drainage filtered water water and also to pass water for
system backwashing at a very high rate.

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5 Size of each Large, plan area – 100 to 2000 Small, plan area – 10 to 80 m2.
unit m2.
6 Rate of Small, 100 to 200 l/hr/m2 of Large, 3000 to 6000 l/hr/m2 of filter
filtration filter area area
7 Economy High initial cost of both land Low initial cost, but higher cost of
and materials, but low cost of operation and maintenance. Over
operation and maintenance all, it is cheaper and economical
8 Efficiency Very efficient in removing Less efficient in removing bacteria
bacteria (98 to 99%) but less (80 to 90 %) but very efficient in
efficient in removing colour removing colour.
9 Flexibility Not flexible for meeting Quite flexible for meeting
variation in demand reasonable variations in demand
10 Suitability Adopted for treating smaller They are widely and almost
and village supplies or for universally adopted for treating
adaptability individual industrial supplies public supplies.
11 Post Almost pure water is obtained Disinfection is must
treatment
12 Skilled Not required Essential
supervision
13 Loss of filter Approximately 10 cm Approximately 0.3 m
head
14 Method of Scrapping and removing the Agitating the sand grains and
cleaning top 1.5 to 3 cm layer, labours backwashing with or without
required compressed air, it is a short and
easy method

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The oxford college of engineering

Pressure Filter
Pressure filters are just like rapid sand gravity filters placed in closed vessels and trough which
water to be treated is passed under pressure. Since water is passed through such filters at a pressure
greater than the atmospheric pressure, it is necessary that these filters are located in air tight
vessels. The raw water is pumped into the vessels by means of pumps. The pressure so developed
may normally vary between 30 to 70 meter head of water.

Construction of Pressure Filter:

The filter vessel may be installed either in a horizontal or in a vertical position, depending upon
which they may be classified as horizontal pressure filter or vertical pressure filter. Steel cylinders
are used as pressure vessel and may be riveted and or welded. The diameter generally varies
between 1.5 m to 3 m and their lengths or heights may vary from 3.5 to 8 m. inspection windows
are provided at the top for inspection purposes.

Working and Operation of Pressure Filter

 A pressure filter is operated like an ordinary rapid gravity filter except that the raw
coagulated water is neither flocculated nor settled before it enters the filter. The
flocculation takes place inside the pressure itself.
 Under normal working conditions, the coagulated water under pressure enters the filter
vessel through the inlet valve 1, and filtered water comes out of the outlet valve 2. Hence,
under this condition, only these two valves are kept open and all other valves are kept
closed

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The oxford college of engineering

 The cleaning of the filter may be carried out by backwashing as done in a normal rapid
gravity filter.
 For cleaning the inlet and outlet valves 1 and 2 are closed and the wash water valve 3 and
wash water gutter valve 4 are opened. After the completion of cleaning, this valve may be

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The oxford college of engineering

closed, and raw supplies restored. However the filtered supplies should not be collected for
a little time and wasted through valve 4, as is done in a rapid gravity filter.
 The filters are cleaned when the loss of head due to clogging, exceeds a certain fixed value.
Pressure filters require slightly more frequent cleaning as compared to that required by
rapid gravity filters.

Rate of Filtration of Pressure Filter

The pressure filter can yield filtered water at rates much higher i.e., 2 to 5 times the rapid gravity
filters. Their rate of filtration ranges between 6000 to 15000 litres/hour/m 2 of filter area. The lower
rates are used for domestic supplies, and higher rates for circulating swimming pool supplies.

Efficiency and Suitability of Pressure Filter

The pressure filters are less efficient than the rapid gravity filters, in removing bacteria and
turbidities. The quality of their effluent is poorer and they are generally not used for public
supplies. But since a pressure filter provides a compact and an easy handling machine, they may be
preferred for treating smaller quantities of comparatively clearer water. Hence they may be
installed for colonies of few houses, individual industries, private estates, swimming pools and
railways stations etc.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Pressure Filter over Rapid Gravity

Filters Advantages:

 A pressure filter is a compact machine can be handled easily.

 Requires lesser space and lesser filtering materials for treating the same quantity of water
by rapid filter.
 Sedimentation and coagulation tanks are avoided.
 Normally more flexible, as the pumping pressure changes, the filtration rates can be
changed.
 For larger quantity of water to be treated it is economical loss, but for smaller and
cleaner water is economically good.

Disadvantages:

 Although, the rate of filtration is high but filter unit is smaller, therefore the overall
capacity of the plant is small.
 Less efficient in removing bacteria and turbidities.
 Quality of the filtered water is less
 Costlier for treating municipal supply of water.
 Since the process of filtration as well as that of the backwashing, takes place in a closed

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

vessel, therefore proper inspection and quality control is not possible.

 Inspection, cleaning and maintenance of sand, gravel and under drainage system is difficult.

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Ultra Filtration (UF) and Micro Filtration (MF)

These processes are pressure driven process across the semi permeable membranes or ultra filtration
(UF) is one of the membrane process based on pressure difference as its driving force UF and MF are
micro porous membranes which remove suspended small size particles by physical separation and
MF and UF are low pressure processes.

The use of ultra filtration technology for municipal drinking water applications is a relatively
recent concept, although in the beginning, it is already commonly used in many industrial
applications such as food or pharmaceutical industries. Ultra filtration is proven to be a
competitive treatment compare with conventional ones. In some cases, the combination of ultra
filtration with conventional process is also feasible particularly for high fouling tendency feed
water or for removal of specific contaminants. Recently, ultra filtration has been recognized as
competitive pre-treatment for reverse osmosis system. A system designed with an ultra filtration as
pre-treatment prior to reverse osmosis system has been referred to as an Integrated Membrane
System (IMS). The application of IMS is a must for sites require very extensive conventional pre-
treatment or where wide fluctuation of raw water quality is expected. However, the UF design was
generally dismissed as commercial alternative to conventional filtration due to its high membrane
cost.

Ultra filtration membranes can be made from both organic (polymer) and inorganic materials.
There are several polymers and other materials used for the manufacture of UF
membrane. The choice of a given polymer as a membrane material is based on very specific
properties such as molecular weight, chain flexibility, chain interaction, etc. Some of these
materials are polysulfone, polyethersulfone, sulfonated polysulfone, polyvinylidene fluoride,
polyacrylonitrile, cellulosics, polyimide, polyetherimide, aliphatic polyamides, and
polyetherketone. Inorganic materials have also been used such as alumina and zirconia.
In porous membranes, the dimension of the pore mainly determines the separation characteristics. The type
of membrane material is important for chemical, thermal, and mechanical stability but not for flux and
rejection.

Source water quality directly impacts UF membrane performance. Therefore, in practice, depending on the

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The oxford college of engineering

quality of raw water, UF can be operated as single operation or combination with other process
(coagulation, adsorption, etc.) or hybrid membrane system (UF/MF). In water application, UF can be the
main process or as pre-treatment for example in RO system.

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Apart of the increasing number of UF plant, fouling and membrane costs are still the main limitations to UF
development and widespread use.

The term fouling includes the totality of phenomena responsible for decreases of permeate flux over a
period of time, except those linked to membrane compaction and mechanical characteristics modification.

Fouling Mechanism and Fouling Control

In general, there is fouling mechanism i.e., complete blocking, intermediate blocking, and cake
formation in complete blocking and intermediate blocking. The particles having the same size with
membrane pores will seal off the pore entrances and prevent the flow. However for intermediate
blocking there is accumulation of some particles on top of other deposited particles, this
accumulation is not occurred in the complete blocking. Meanwhile standard blocking is essentially
results in a decrease of the membrane porosity and increase of membrane resistance since the bulk
phase particle are small enough to enter the membrane on the walls of the cylindrical pores thus the
pores becomes reduced further more cake formation occurs when bigger particles accumulate on
the surface of a membrane in a permeable lake of increasing thickness that increases membrane
resistance.

Fouling Control

i) Pretreatment of the Feed

UF and MF are well known as low pressure membranes and relatively have large membrane pores.
A proper pre-treatment process before membrane filtration will only improve treatment efficiencies
of the whole system but also mitigate membrane fouling.

ii) Membrane Material/Surface Modification

This approach is to fabricate the membrane with resistance towards the adhesion of foulants
through membrane surface modification, this can be achieved through various technique such as
polymer grafting, blending, radiation, coating and the use of inorganic or antimicrobial additives
during membrane manufacturing.

iii) Cleaning Procedure and Operating Parameters

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

A well designed membrane with a high porosity and permeability will inherently provide better
flux and economics. It is essential to establish good pretreatment to prevent or minimize fouling.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

MODULE - IV

DISINFECTION AND SOFTENING

The process of removal of disease causing bacteria in order to make the water safe for drinking is
called as disinfection. The chemicals used for killing these bacteria’s are known as disinfectants.

The presence of turbidity, colour or minerals etc, may not be dangerous, but the presence of
even a single harmful organisms will cause dangerous effect on the health of the individual. The
disinfection not only removes the existing bacteria from the water at the plant, but also ensures
their immediate killing even afterwards, in the distribution system.

Requirements of Ideal Disinfectant

 The disinfectant used should not only removes the existing bacteria from the water at
the plant, but also ensure their immediate killing even afterwards, in the distribution
system.
 The chemical used as a disinfectant must be able to give residual disinfectant effect for
a longer period, thus affording protection against recontamination in the distribution
network.
 Disinfectant should be harmless, unobjectionable to tongue of human beings.
 It must be economical, easily available and should be easily measurable by simple tests.
 They should not require high skill and costly requirement for their application.
 They should not take more time in killing pathogens, but do their task within the
required time at normal temperature.
 They should be of such a nature that their strength or concentration in the treated
water can be quickly determined.

Minor Methods of Disinfection

Following are the minor methods of disinfection

 Boiling of water
 treatment with excess lime
 treatment with iodine and bromine
 treatment with ultraviolet rays
 treatment with potassium permanganate (KMnO4)

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The oxford college of engineering

 treatment with silver (Elcetro- katadyn process)

1) Boiling of Water

 This method includes the heating of water to raise the temperature thereby killing
the bacteria’s present in water.
 It is one of the effective methods of disinfection.
 This method is practically not possible to treat the huge quantity of public water supplies.
 There is no provision provided to care about the future contamination of treated water
in the distribution pipes.
 This method commonly not used in any conventional water treatment plant.
 However, during the water borne epidemics, public is advised to drink water only
after boiling it in their houses.

2) Treatment with Excess Lime

 When excess lime is added to the water, it raises the pH value and makes the
water extremely alkaline.
 This extreme alkalinity is detrimental to the survival of bacteria, thus killing
them partially or completely.
 At pH 9.5 to 9.99, can completely removes the bacteria’s present in water.
 After the disinfection treated with lime, it needs excess removal of alkalinity from water
before supplied to the public. Re-carboantion can be employed for the removal of excess
lime or alkalinity present resulted water.
 By this method, can’t achieve the protection against the future contamination of water
in a distribution network.
 Because of its higher alkalinity leads in a water when water is treated with lime,
hence this method is not used in these days.

3) Treatment with Ozone (O3)

 Ozone is a faintly blue gas with plungent odour and is an excellent disinfectant.
 It can be produced by passing a high tension electric current through a stream of air in a
closed chamber.

3O2 2O3

(oxygen) (ozone molecule)

 Because of its instability, ozone readily breakdown into molecular oxygen and
releases nascent oxygen.
O3 O2 + O
(oxidizing agent)
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The oxford college of engineering

 The nascent oxygen so produced is a powerful oxidizing agent and removes the
organic matter as well as bacteria from the water.
 Ozone and chlorine are competitive disinfectants.
 France, Russia and Chandigarh (India) using ozone treatment.

Advantages:

 Ozone is a unstable compound and after the treatment nothing will remains in the water
as a sludge.
 Removes colour, taste, odour and bacteria.
 Ozonised water is tasty and chlorinated water is bitter to tongue.

Disadvantages:

 Process is costly than chlorination.

 Needs electricity.
 Future contamination protection is nil because ozone is unstable compound.
 Ozoniser is a complicated apparatus is required.
 Less efficient in killing bacteria than chlorine.

4) Treatment with Iodine and Bromine

 Treatment with iodine and bromine to water help in killing the pathogenic bacteria,
and thereby disinfecting the water.
 The quantity of disinfectant is limited to 8 ppm with a contact period of 5 minutes.
 It can be available in the form of pills.
 This type of disinfectant not used for large scale supplies, but may be used for
treating smaller water supplies for army troops, private plants, swimming pools etc.

5) Treatment with Ultraviolet Rays

 Ultraviolet rays are invisible rays of wavelength 1000 to 4000 micron meters.
 UV rays can be produced by passing electric current through mercury enclosed
in quartz bulbs.
 Mercury vapour lamps are good source for UV rays.
 These rays are highly effective in killing all types of bacteria.
 Water treated by UV rays should be colourless and turbidity should not exceed 15 mg/l.
 Water is passed around the quartz bulbs emitting the UV rays. The depth of water over
the bulbs should not exceed 10 cm, because these rays can effectively penetrate to this
much distance only.

6) Treatment with Potassium Permanganate (KMnO4)

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The oxford college of engineering

 It can be applied only for well water supplies in villages which are generally
contaminated with fewer amounts of bacteria and also oxidizing the taste causing organic
matter.
 small amount of KMnO4 dissolved in a bucket of water and is mixed with well water
thoroughly, after adding KMnO4 water turns to pink colour if the organic matter absent
 If pink colour absent shows the presence of organic matter and more quantity of KMnO 4
should be added, until the pink colour stands in water indicates the killing of all bacteria.
 The well water should not be used for at least 48 hours after the addition of KMnO4.
 Normal dosage is 1 to 2 mg/l with a contact period is 4 to 6 hours.
 It is cheap, handy and quite useful.
 It can removes about 98% of the disease causing bacteria in water.

7) Treatment with Silver or Electro-Katadyn Process

 In this method, water is passed through a tube containing solid silver electrodes, and then
the silver ions are dissolved into water.
 The silver ions have strong disinfection effect with a dosage of 0.05 to 0.1 mg/l and
contact period of 15 minutes.
 Use of silver is very costly and hence not adopted for public supplies.
 It can remove 100% of bacteria from the water.

Major Method of Disinfection

CHLORINATION
Chlorine is universally used for disinfecting of public water supplies. it is cheap, reliable, easy to
handle, easily measurable.

it is capable of providing residual disinfecting effect for a longer periods, thus providing
complete protection against future contamination of water in the distribution system.

its only disadvantage is that, when used in excess amounts it imparts bitter and bad taste to the
water which may not be liked by certain sensitive – tongued consumers.

Disinfecting Action of Chlorine or Theory of Disinfection

 when chlorine is added to water it forms hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ions, which
have an immediate and disastrous effect on bacteria’s

Cl2 + H2O HOCl + HCl

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The oxford college of engineering

(Chlorine) (Hypochlorous acid)

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

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The oxford college of engineering

 Hypochlorous acid is usually unstable and may breakdown into hypochlorite ions and
hydrogen ions.

HOCl H+ + OCl

(Hydrogen ions) (Hypochlorite ions)

 At higher pH values, the disaasociation of hypochlorous acid takes place. thus at pH

hreater thyan 10, only OCl ions are to be found.
 while in the pH less than 7 (more than 5), HOCl will exist without dissociating into OCL
ions and in the pH range of below 5, chlorine does not react and remains as elemental
chlorine.
 out of these forms of free available chlorine, hypochlorous acid is more effiective in
killing the bacteria about 80 times more effective than the hypochlorite ions. for this
reason, the pH value should be maintained slightly less than 7, so as to reduce the
dissociation of HOCl, and there by keeping more HOCl ions in solution compared to OCl
ions.
 also, hypochlorous acid immediately react with the ammonia present in water to form
various chloramines.

NH3 + HOCl NH2Cl + H2O

(Monochloramine)

NH2Cl + HOCl NHCl2 + H2O

(Dichloramines)

NHCl2 + HOCl NCl3 + H2O

(Nitrogen trichoramine)

 The chloramines so formed are stable and having disinfecting properties.

Forms of Chlorination or Application Forms of Chlorination or Various

Forms of Chlorine is Applied to Water
 In the form of hypochlorites or bleaching powder
 In the form of liquid chlorine or chlorine gas
 In the form of chlorine tablets
 In the form of chloramines (i.e, mixture of chlorine and ammonia)
 In the form of chlorine dioxide

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

1) In the form of Hypochlorites (Ca(OCl)2) and Bleaching powder

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The oxford college of engineering

 Calcium and sodium hypochlorites are used for chlorinating small public supplies.
 When such hypochlorites is dissolved in water, it dissociates as as to form hypochlorite
ions.

Ca (OCl)2 Ca++ + 2 OCl

(Calcium hypochlorite) (Calcium ions) (Hypochlorite ions)

 The hypochlorite ions may further combine with the hydrogen ions present in water.
OCl + H+ HOCl
(Hypochlorite ions) ( Hypochlorous acid)

This process is known as hypochlorination.

 The hypochlorite ions as well as hypochlorous acid both causes disinfection of

water. Bleaching powder (CaOCl2) or Calcium oxychlorite:

 Bleaching powder is a white amorphous powdered compound with a plungent smell of

chlorine.
 When freshly made, it contains about 30% of available chlorine. however it is an
unstable compound and on exposure to air, light and moisture it rapidly losses its
chlorine content.
 hypochlorites and bleaching powder are generally not used in modern days for treating
public water supplies because;
(i) they rise the pH value of water on account of their lime contents
(ii) they contain very low amounts of chlorine
(iii) Adopted only for small supplies, for swimming pools, well, tube wells etc.

2) In the form of liquid chlorine or chlorine gas

 The molecular chlorine (Cl2) can be carried and applied to the water to be treated in
either liquid or gaseous form.
 The liquid form is generally used these days and chlorine in its gaseous form is a
greenish yellow gas and heavier than the air and get dissolved in water.
 The gaseous form of chlorine gets converted into the liquid form, when subjected to a
pressure of 700 KN/m2.
 The chlorine liquid formed is an colored oily fluid and is generally available in cylinders
under a pressure of 700 to 1000 KN/m2.
 When it is applied to water, the pressure is released and the liquid chlorine gets
converted into gas, which escapes out of the cylinder and gets dissolved in water.

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The oxford college of engineering

 Chlorine gas neither burns nor explodes and therefore it can be safely stored in steel
cylinders either in a gaseous form or in a liquid form.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Chlorine gas causes irritation to the lungs and to the membranes of the nose and throat.
 So much chlorine of 20 mg/l may causes severe health hazards and even may cause death
just within 5 minutes.
 For these reasons chlorine must be stored properly and carefully in ventilated rooms and
carefully handled so as to avoid any leakage.

Advantages of using Free Ammonia Chlorine as a Disinfectant

The liquid chlorine is now a day’s invariably and universally adopted for disinfecting public
supplies.

 it can be easily stored for a long period

 it is quite cheap and easily available
 it occupies less space for storage
 it can be easily and cheaply transported
 the chlorine dose to be added can be easily measurable
 the initial cost of installation is also less
 powerful disinfectant and have residual disinfectant for larger time
 need careful handling
 no sludge is formed in its application

3) In the form of Chlorine Tablets

 Chlorine tablets may also be sometimes be used to disinfect small quantities of water, but
they are costly.
 Commercially chlorine tablets are available in the form of halazone tablets.
 The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur has introduced new
chlorine tablets, which is 1.5 times better than the ordinary halazone tablets and also
cheap rate.
 A single tablet of 0.5g is sufficient to disinfect about 20 liters of water.
 These tablets can be used for treating overhead water storage tanks or public supplies
during water borne epidemics or during floods when public supplies are liable to
contaminated.

4) In the form of Chloramines

 Chloramines are disinfectant compounds, which are formed by the reaction between
ammonia and chlorine.
NH3 + HOCl NH2Cl + H2O

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Chloramines are stable compounds and have a longer period residual disinfectant effect
in water.
 They are much weaker disinfectants compared to free chlorine.
 For producing chloramines, ammonia is added to the filtered water before adding
chlorine and properly mixed about 209 minutes to 2 hours earlier than applying chlorine.
 Since chloramines are weaker disinfectants compared to the chlorine.

Advantges:

 Do not cause bad taste and odour when lefts as residuals

 They are very useful when phenols are present in water.

5) Use of Chlorine Dioxide Gas (ClO2)

 Chlorine dioxide gas is a very effective and powerful disinfectant, about 2.5 times
stronger than chlorine.
 it is produced by passing chlorine gas through sodium chlorite, as follows;
2NaClO2 + Cl2 2NaCl + 2ClO2
(Sodium chlorite) (Chlorine dioxide gas)
 chlorine dioxide gas is costly and very unstable and has to be used immediately after its
production
 For these reasons, generally not used for treating water containing larger amounts of
organic impurities.
 It can be used for treating highly alkaline water with pH between 8 to 10. The normal
dose of chlorine dioxide gas usually ranges between 0.5 to 1.5 mg/l.

TYPES OF CHLORINATION

Depending upon the quantity of the chlorine added pr the stage at which it is added;

 plain chlorination
 Pre-chlorination
 Post chlorination
 Double chlorination
 Break point chlorination
 Super chlorination
 De-chlorination

1) Plain Chlorination

 This process indicates only chlorination and no other treatment has been given to the raw
water.

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The oxford college of engineering

 The raw water is fed into the distribution system after giving chlorine treatment only and
this helps in removing bacteria, organic matter and colour from the raw water.
 This method is applied only for clearer water having turbidity less than 20 to 30 mg/l.
 It may also be used for supplying water for army troops during war times.
 The used quantity of chlorine for plain chlorination is about 0.5 mg/l.

2) Pre-Chlorination

 Pre-chlorination is the process of applying the chlorine to the water before the filtration
or coagulation cum sedimentation.
 It also helps in improving coagulation and reduces the load on filters. it also reduces the
taste, odour, algae and other organisms.
 The chlorine dose should be such that about 0.1 to 0.5 mg/l of residual chlorine comes to
the filter plant. the normal doses required are 5 – 10 mg/l
 However, pre-chlorination is always followed by post chlorination, so as to ensure the
final safety of water.

3) Post Chlorination

 Post chlorination is a process of applying the chlorine to the water after the filtration and
before the water enters to the distribution network.
 The dosage of chlorine should be such as to leave a residual chlorine of about 0.1 to 0.2
mg/l after a contact period of about 20 minutes.
 This residual chlorine will ensure the disinfection of water and to protect t the water from
future contamination.

4) Double Chlorination

 It indicates that water has been chlorinated twice.

 The pre-chlorination and post chlorination is generally used in double chlorination.
 This method is used when the water is highly turbid and contaminated.

5) Break-point Chlorination

 Break point chlorination gives an idea of the extent of chlorine to be added to the water.
It represents that much chlorination beyond which any further addition of chlorine will
appear as free residual chlorine.
 When chlorine is added to the water, generally reacts with ammonia present in water so
as to form chloramines.
 If chlorine is added to the water and the residual is tested, it will found that the residual
go on increasing with the addition of chlorine.

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The oxford college of engineering

 However, some amount of chlorine is consumed for killing the bacteria and thus the
amount of chlorine is to be slightly less than that added chlorine as indicated by the
curve AB in the graph.

 If the addition of chlorine continued beyond the point B, the organic matter present in
water gets oxidized. Therefore, the residual chlorine content suddenly falls down, as
shown by the curve BC.
 The point C is the point beyond which any further addition of chlorine will appear
equally as free chlorine, since nothing it shall be utilized. The point “C” is called as
break point as any chlorine that is added to the water beyond this point, breaks through
the water and appears as residual chlorine.
 The addition of chlorine beyond the break point is called as break point chlorination.
 At the point B, when oxidation of the organic matter starts, a bad smell and taste appears
and which disappears at the break point C, when the oxidation has been completed.
 Generally, the chlorine is added beyond the break point and thus to ensure a residual of
0.2 to 0.3 mg/l of free chlorine. This residual chlorine can’t be removed except by sun
light so that it protects the water in a distribution pipes from the future contamination.
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The oxford college of engineering

6) Super Chlorination

 Super chlorination is the process of addition of excess chlorine i.e., 5 to 10 mg/l to the
water.
 This method is followed during the water borne epidemics and highly turbid water to be
treated.
 This process is used normally when the water contains bacteria Histolytica, which causes
amoebic dysentery.
 After the break point it will give 1 to 2 mg/l of residual chlorine in this method.

7) De-Chlorination

 Sometimes higher doses of chlorine may be used for water in a extreme conditions and
the resultant water is to be dechlorinated after the end of desired contact period by using
dechlorinating agents such as sodium thiosulphate, activated carbon or by simply aerating
the water.
 This ensures the removal bad taste and odour caused by the presence of excess chlorine.
 Therefore, de-chlorination means removing the chlorine from water by maintaining the
residual chlorine of about 0.2 to 0.3 mg/l.

SOFTENING OF WATER
The removal of hardness from water is known as water softening.

The advantages of softening of water are;

 Reduces the soap consumption

 Lowered cost in maintaining plumbing fixtures and improved taste of food preparations
 For the industrial supplies, the softening is more important, because hard water causes
scaling troubles in boilers and interferes in working with dyeing system.

Methods of Removal of Temporary Hardness

The temporary hardness can be removed by boiling and adding lime to the water

 Boiling of water
 Addition of lime

i) Boiling of Water:

Calcium carbonate usually exists in water as calcium carbonate, because it easily dissolves in
natural water containing carbon dioxide. When such water is boiled, the carbon dioxide gas will

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evolved out, leading to the precipitation of calcium carbonate, which can be sedimented out in
the settling tank.

Ca(HCO3)2 + Heat CaCO3 +CO2 + H2O

The magnesium carbonate and magnesium bicarbonate cannot be satisfactorily removed by

boiling, since MgCO3 is fairly soluble in water.

Also, large scale boiling of public supplies is practically not possible and hence, boiling is not
adopted for softening in the large scale treatment.

ii) Addition of Lime

For softening of water, generally hydrated lime Ca(OH)2 is added to the water and the following
reactions will takes place.

MgCO3 + Ca(OH)2 Mg(OH)2 + CaCO3

(Insoluble ppt) (Insoluble ppt)

Mg(HCO3)2 + Ca(OH)2 Ca(HCO3)2 + Mg(OH)2

(Insoluble ppt)

Ca(HCO3)2 + Ca(OH)2 2CaCO3 + 2H2O

(Insoluble ppt)

The calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide are precipitated and can be removed in the
sedimentation tank.

This method is generally adopted for softening of water which contains only temporary hardness.

Methods of Removing Permanent Hardness

The permanent hardness is difficult to remove, so that certain special methods are adopted, called
as softening methods.

Following methods commonly adopted for removing both temporary and permanent hardness.

 lime-soda process
 Base exchange process or zeolite process
 Reverse osmosis

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

i) Lime-Soda Process

in this process, lime (Ca(OH)2) and soda ash (Na2CO3) are added to raw water, which react with
calcium and magnesium salts, so as to form insoluble precipitates of calcium carbonate and
magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2). These precipitates can be settled in the settling tank.

The chemical reactions which are involved are;

Ca(HCO3)2 + Ca(OH)2 2CaCO3 + 2H2O

(Insoluble ppt)

Mg(HCO3)2 + Ca(OH)2 Ca(HCO3)2 + Mg(OH)2

(Insoluble ppt)

MgCO3 + Ca(OH)2 Mg(OH)2 + CaCO3

(Insoluble ppt) (Insoluble ppt)

MgCl2 + Ca(OH)2 Mg(OH)2 + CaCl2

(Non-Carbonate hardness of Mg) (Non-Carbonate hardness of Ca)

MgSO4 + Ca(OH)2 Mg(OH)2 + CaSO4

(Non-Carbonate hardness of Ca)

CaCl2 + Na2CO3 CaCO3 + 2NaCl

(Soda ash) (Sodium salts)

CaSO4 + Na2CO3 CaCO3 + Na2SO4

From the above reactions shows that, lime helps in removing the entire carbonate hardness of Ca
and Mg and it reacts with non-carbonate hardness of Ca. then the non-carbonate hardness of Ca
is finally removed by soda.

The sodium salts which are finally formed are soluble in water, but are generally not
objectionable in the amounts resulting from the softening process.

Most of the calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide which is formed gets precipitated and
can be sedimented in the settling tank.

However a little quantity of calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide may remain as finely
Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK
Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

divided particles, and may cause troubles by getting deposited on the filter to cause enlargement

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

of the sand grains called incrustation of filter media or in the pipes of the distribution system. To
prevent this, water is to be recarbonated by passing carbon dioxide gas through it, as it leaves the
sedimentation tank. In the recarbonation process, the insoluble carbonates combine with the
carbon dioxide to again form the soluble bicarbonates, as given below:

CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O Ca(HCO3)2

(Insoluble cal. carbonate) (Soluble

Cal.bicarbonate) Mg(OH)2 + CO2 MgCO3 + H2O

MgCO3 + CO2 +H2O Mg(HCO3)2

The carbon dioxide gas to be blown in water can be produced by burning coke, gas or oil. By the
recarbonation process, even though the water regains some of its hardness, yet recarbonation is
advisable.

Advantages of lime-soda process

 The process is economical

 When lime and soda are added in addition to the coagulants, during the process of
softening cum coagulation, lesser quantity of coagulant is generally required.
 This treatment leads to an increase in the pH value of water, thus reducing the corrosion
of the distribution pipes.
 The increased causticity may also sometimes helps in killing the pathogenic bacteria.
 This treatment helps in reducing the total mineral content of water.
 It helps in removing iron and magnesium from the water to a certain extent.

Disadvantages of lime-soda treatment

 A large quantity of sludge in the form of insoluble precipitates of calcium carbonate and
magnesium hydroxide will leads to the disposal problems.
 Careful operation and skilled supervision is required in order to get good results.
 Incrustation of the pipe walls of the distribution system will result.
 This process will not be help in producing water of zero hardness.

ii) Zeolite Process or Base Exchange or Cation-Exchange Process

 Zeolites are the natural salts or clays, which are hydrated silicates of sodium and
aluminum. The synthetic zeolites are called as “resins”.
 The zeolites or resins have the excellent property of exchanging their cations and hence
during softening operation, the sodium ions of the zeolite get replaced by the calcium and
magnesium ions present in hard water.

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The oxford college of engineering

Where “Z” stands for the complex zeolite radical.

 the calcium and magnesium zeolite can be regenerated into active sodium zeolite by
treating with 5-10% solution of sodium chloride.

 A zeolite softener unit is similar to the pressure sand filter unit but in which the filter
media is zeolite rather than sand.
 The hard water enters through the top and is evenly distributed on the entire zeolite bed.
The softened water is collected through the strainers at the base.
 When a significant portion of the sodium in the zeolite has been replaced by calcium and
magnesium. It is regenerated by washing it with water by receiving the flow and then
treating it with 10% solution of brine.

 The excess brine solution retained in the solution after the treatment is removed by again
washing it with good water. Then the regenerated zeolite can be used for fresh softening
process.
 The rate of filtration through the zeolite bed is 300 liters/minute/m2.
 The zeolite process will result in a water of zero hardness, which is generally not suitable
for public supplies.

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The oxford college of engineering

Advantages

 Zero hardness of the water can be obtained and hence, useful for specific uses in
industries.
 The plant is compact, automatic and easy to operate.
 No sludge is formed.
 The RMO cost is quite less.
 It removes ferrous iron and manganese from the water.
 There is no difficulty in treating water of varying quality.
 There is no problem of incrustation of pipes in the distribution system.

Disadvantages

 This process is not suitable for treating highly turbid water, because the suspended
impurities get deposited around the zeolite particles and thus cause obstruction to the
working of the zeolite.
 The process leaves sodium bicarbonate in water, which causes priming and foaming in
industrial or boiler feed waters.
 The zeolite process costlier and unsuitable for treating water containing iron and
manganese. This is because of the fact that the iron zeolite or manganese zeolite formed
during the chemical reactions cannot be regenerated into sodium zeolite. Thus the zeolite
becomes wasted, although the iron and manganese are removed from the water.

Comparison between Lime-Soda Process and Zeolite Process

SL Item Lime Soda Process Zeolite Process

NO.
1 Size of the plant Bulky and large Compact and small
2 Skilled Careful and skilled supervision is Automatic and easy to operate
supervision necessary
3 Sludge problems Large quantity of sludge is No sludge is formed and there is
formed, and poses disposal no problem of disposal of
problem of sludge’s. sludges.
4 Post treatment Recarbonation is must after No such treatment is required
sedimentation and filtration
5 Hradness This can produce water of Water of zero hardness can be
removal rate hardness not less than about 50 obtained. therefore useful for
mg/l. Therefore useful for public industrial supplies also.
supplies only
6 pH of the treated Increases the pH value of the The pH value of the water is not
water water, which reduces the affected
corrosion of distribution pipes

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The oxford college of engineering

7 Handling Careful handling is required Much care of brine solution not

because the materials (lime and required.
soda) are corrosive

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The oxford college of engineering

8 Effects on The increased causticity may help No such advantage is offered by

bacteria in killing the pathogenic bacteria this process.
9 Allowable Highly turbid and acidic water can Highly turbid water are difficult
turbidities in raw be treated to be treated, because the
water suspended impurities deposited
around the zeolite particles cause
obstruction to the working of the
zeolite.
10 Economy Process is economical Process is costlier

REVERSE OSMOSIS
Reverse osmosis is a process of removal of salt ions from the raw water by forcing the slat
solution against a semi permeable membrane barrier, which permits the flow of water through
itself but stops the salts. The process is also called as desalination process.

In natural osmosis process, when salt solution is separated from pure water by a semi permeable
membrane, the pure water flows across membrane until the pressure on the pure water side
become equal to the osmotic pressure of the salt solution.

But in reverse osmosis process, the natural osmotic pressure is opposed by exerting an external
pressure on the salt solution. in other words the osmotic pressure is reversed, and this external
high pressure working in opposition to natures low osmotic pressure, forces pure water from the
salt solution to move across the membrane towards the side containing water.

The osmotic pressure is proportional to the TDS of the water, and a pressure of at least twice the
osmotic pressure is required to an economically feasible flow. The semi permeable membrane
used in this process is hence thin but dense and strong enough to withstand the high external
pressure. It is supported by a grid and the salty water circulates against on surface of it. This
surface has a thick and a tough ski, while the body ogf the membrane is softer and less dense.
reverse osmosis does not work below 60000 KN/m2 and is usually operated at about 100000
KN/m2.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Reverse Osmosis

Demineralisation Process for Removing Hardness

Demineralization means removing hardness causing minerals from water. It is suitable for
producing water of any desired hardness or even mineral free water. The demineralised water
sometimes called as deionised water, and it is pure as distilled water, and is very suitable for
industrial purposes.

This complete removal of minerals present in water can be carried out by first passing the water
through a bed of cation exchange resins and then through a bed of anion exchange resins.

The process of passing the water through cation exchange resins produces almost similar effects
as produced in the zeolite method, except that hydrogen (instead of sodium) is exchanged for the
basic cations. The cation exchange resins are phenol aldehyde condensation products, which on
sulphonation produces resinous mass having base ion exchange properties. Their chemical
formula may be represented as “”H 2R”, where H represents hydrogen ion and “R” represents
organic part of the substance.

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The oxford college of engineering

The chemical reactions involved during the processes are;

Ca(HCO3)2 + H2R CaR + 2H2O + 2CO2

(Fresh Cation exchange resin) (Exhausted resin)

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The oxford college of engineering

CaCl2 + H2R CaR + 2HCl

MgSO4 + H2R MgR + H2SO4

2 NaCl + H2R Na2R + 2HCl

The water coming out of the cation exchanger will contain diluted carbonic acid, hydrochloric
acid, sulphuric acid etc, and it can be removed by passing the water through a bed of anion
exchange resins.

The anion exchange resins are formed by the condensation of amines with formaldehyde and are
capable of replacing the anions with hydroxyl ions. The chemical formula for such a resin
represented as “ROH”, where “OH” represented hydroxyl ions and “R” represents the organic
part of the substance.

The chemical reactions involved are;

HCl + ROH RCl + H2O

(Fresh anion exchange resin) ( Exhausted resin) Water

H2SO4 + 2 ROH R2SO4 + 2H2O

(Fresh anion exchange resin) ( Exhausted resin) Water

The water coming out from this anion exchanger will then be free from minerals. The extent of
removal of hardness will depend upon the strength and freshness of the resins used.

The exhausted resins can be regenerated as;

Regeneration of Cation Excahange Resin

The exhausted cation exchange resin can be regenerated by treating them with dilute hydrochloric
acid or sulphuric acid.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Regeneration of Anion Exchange Resin:

The exhausted anion exchange resins can be similarly regenerated by treating them with sodium
carbonate solution.

RCl + Na2CO3 + 2H2O 2ROH + 2NaCl + CO2 + H2O

(Exhausted anion resin) (regenerated anion resin

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

MODULE - V

INTAKE STRUCTURES
When water is withdrawal from a dam or a reservoir, withdrawal conduit is not an integral
part of the dam or reservoir, and then an intake structure must be constructed at the
entrance of conduit.

The basic function of the intake structure is to help in safe withdrawal of water from the
source over a predetermined range of pool levels and then to discharge this water into the
withdrawal conduit, through which it flows up to the water treatment plant.

An intake structure constructed at the entrance of the conduit and thereby helping in
protecting the conduit from being damaged or clogged by ice, trash, debris etc.

Types of Intake Structures

 Simple Submerged intake or Lake intake

 River Intake
 Canal Intake
 Intake for Sluiceways of dam or resevior
 Intake Towers

1) Simple Submerged Intake

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The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Simple Concrete Block-Submerged Intake

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The oxford college of engineering

 Simple submerged intake consists of a simple concrete block or a rock filled timber
crib supporting the withdrawal pipe.
 The withdrawal pipe is generally taken up to the sump well at shore, from where
the water is lifted by the pumps.
 The intake openings are generally covered by screen so as to prevent the entry of
debris, ice etc. into the withdrawal conduit.
 In the lakes silt tends to settle down, the intake opening is generally kept at about 2
to 2.5 m above the bottom of the lake and thus to avoid the entry of large amounts
of silt and sediment.
 Such an intake structure should be placed in lakes at a place where they may not get
buried under sediment and where there is deep water available, in lakes deep water
is generally available in middle.
 These submerged intake structures should be constructed in such a way that, they
should not obstruct the navigation.
 Therefore, they are widely used for small water supply projects drawing water from
streams or lakes having relatively little change in water surface elevation
throughout the year.
 These intakes are not used in bigger projects in rivers and reservoirs, as their main
disadvantage is the fact that they are not easily accessible for cleaning, repairing
etc.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Rock filled Timber crib – Submerged Intake

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

2) River Intake

River intake structures are generally constructed for withdrawal of water from rivers. River
intake structures can be broadly classified into,

 Twin Well Type of Intake Structure

 Single Well Type of Intake Structure

Twin Well Type of Intake Structure

Fig: Section of a Typical Twin Well type of a River Intake

 This is the most commonly used river intake, where the river water hugs the
bank of the river. Such a condition is usually available on non-alluvial rivers.
 The river intake structure consists of inlet well, inlet pipe and a jack well or
sump well.
 The inlet well is a circular well, located in the river bed. The well is built by
masonry or a concrete and is raised above the HFL (High Flood Level) and covered
at the top by wooden sleepers, so as to make it approachable from the river bank
through a foot bridge arrangement.
 River water enters into this well through the openings or ports fitted with vertical

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The oxford college of engineering

bar screens are of 20 mm in diameter.

 Depending upon the discharge to be entered into the inlet well, the total area of
ports or openings can be provided by restricting the flow velocity through the
screens of about 15 to 20 cm/sec, so as to prevent the entry of debris.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

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The oxford college of engineering

 The section of the intake well is below the level of the intake pipe helps to provide
space for accumulation of silt and sediment. This deposited silt is to be removed
mechanically or manually to keep the pipe free from silt. The intake well thus helps
to keep away silt and debris from the intake pipe and jack well.
 The intake well is connected to a jack well by the R.C.C intake pipe, which is
constructed on river bank. The intake pipe is laid with a gentle slope of 1 in 200
towards the jack well.
 The diameter of the intake depends upon its discharge capacity, which should be
equal to the pumped discharge from the jack well and the flow velocity in the pipe
does not exceed 1.2 m/s. The diameter of this pipe should not be less than 45 cm,
since smaller pipes may get chocked and become difficult to clean.
 Water entering into the jack well from the intake pipe is lifted by pumps and is fed
into rising main through the delivery pipe of the pump.
 The jack well should be located on the high ground above the HFL near river bank.
 The jack well should be constructed on hard strata with a bearing capacity of not
less than 450 KN/m2.

Single well type River Intake

 These intake wells are usually constructed in the alluvial rivers by constructing
weir across the river.
 From the upstream side of such a weir, a channel is to be taken off as a diversion
head works.
 The water entering this off-take canal is to be controlled and lifted for supply to the
treatment plant.
 The intake structure for collecting water is located in the off-take canal.
 This type of intake arrangement will eliminate the construction of a separate inlet
well and the inlet pipe.
 Openings or ports are fitted in the jack well itself rather than in the inlet well.
 The sediment entering this intake will usually be less, since clearer water will enter
into the off-take channel.

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Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The jack well can be periodically cleaned manually, by restricting the entry of
water into the jack well.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Section of a Single well type of a river intake to be located across an off-take channel

3) Canal Intake

 In case of a canal intake, the intake well is generally located in the bank of the
canal and water enters the chamber through an inlet pipe, covered with affine
screen.
 The water coming out of the chamber through the outlet conduit taken to the sump
well.
 Since the flow area in the canal is obstructed by the construction of intake well, the
flow velocity in the canal increases due to reduction in water way, and hence
pitching is generally provided in the upstream as well as downstream portions of
the canal near the intake.
 The entry of water in the intake well through a coarse screen, the top of which is
generally provided at minimum water level in the canal and bottom is about 0.15 m
above the canal bed to avoid entry of sediments.
 An additional fine screen is provided at the inlet end of the withdrawal conduit.
This inlet end is of bell mouth shape with perforations of fine screen on its surface.
An outlet valve, operating from the top is provided to control the entry of water into
the intake pipe.
 The velocity through the intake conduit is generally kept at 1.2 m/sec, and this
helps in determining the area and diameter at the withdrawal conduit.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

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The oxford college of engineering

 The area of the coarse screen is designed by limiting the flow velocity to as low as
0.15 m/sec. the flow velocity through the bell mouth inlet is limited to about 0.3
m/sec.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Section of a Canal Intake Well

4) Intake for Sluiceways of Dams

 In the earthen dams, the intake is generally located near the upstream toe of the
dam. Whereas for masonry dams, the intake well for withdrawing water is
generally located inside the body of the dam.
 In both the types, the intake conduits are installed at different levels and the
water enter into a common conduit passing through the body of the dam.
 The intake conduits are provided with valves which may be closed or opened by
operating them from the control room, as and when desired, so as to withdraw
water from any permissible desired level.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Fig: Canal for Sluice ways of Dam or Reservoir

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The oxford college of engineering

5) Intake Towers

 Intake towers are generally used on large projects and on rivers or reservoirs where
there are large fluctuations of water level.
 Gate controlled openings at various levels called as ports are generally providedin
these concrete towers which may help in regulating the flow through the towers and
permit some selection of the quality of water to be withdrawn.
 Access to these towers is generally provided for operating the gates etc, by means
of Foot Bridge from the tower up to the dam.
 The level of the lowest port should be high enough above the reservoir bed, so that
the sediment is not drawn into them.

There are two types of major intake towers.

 Wet Intake Tower

 Dry Intake Tower

a) Wet Intake Tower

 A wet intake tower consists of a concrete circular shell filled with water up to the
reservoir level and has a vertical inside shaft which is connected to the withdrawal
pipe.
 The withdrawal pipe is taken to the sump well or directly to the treatment plant.
 The withdrawal conduits lie over river beds.
 Openings are made into the outer concrete shell as well as into the shaft.
 Gates are placed on the shaft and the withdrawal conduit, which permit the entry of
water into the withdrawal conduit.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

b) Dry Intake Tower

 In the dry intake tower, water will not enter into the inside of intake tower.
 The water from the gate controlled ports directly enters into the withdrawal pipe
and it may connect to the sump well.
 In wet intake tower, water enters from the entry ports into the tower and then it
enters into the conduit pipe through separate gate controlled openings. Whereas, in
dry intake the water is directly drawn into the withdrawal conduit through the gated
entry ports.
 A dry intake has no water inside the tower if its gates are closed, whereas the wet
intake tower will be full of water even if its gates are closed.
 When the entry ports are closed, a dry intake tower will be subjected to additional
buoyant forces and hence must be of heavier construction than the wet intake

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towers.
 However, the dry intake towers are useful and beneficial because the water can be
withdrawn from any selected level of the reservoir by opening the port at that level.

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The oxford college of engineering

Factors Considered while Locating an Intake

Structure
While selecting a site for intake structure, the following points shall be considered.

 As far as possible, the site should be near to the treatment plant, so that cost of
conveying water to the city is less.
 The intake structure must be located in the purer zone of the source, so that the
good quality of water is withdrawn from the source, thereby reducing the load on
the treatment plant.
 The intake must never be located at the downstream or vicinity of the wastewater
disposal.
 The intake should never be located near the navigation channels, otherwise there
are chances of intake water getting polluted due to the discharge of refuse and
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waste from ships and boats.

 The site should be such as to permit greater withdrawal of water, if required at
future date. Thus, there should be sufficient scope for future additions and
expansions.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The intake must be located at a place from where it can withdraw water even during
driest period of the year. Thus the intake must be in deep water, sufficiently away
from the shore line. Otherwise, during dry periods, when the water level goes
down, the intake may be left dry without any water to be drawn around it.
 The intake site should be easily accessible during floods and should not get
flooded. The flood water should not be concentrated in the vicinity of the intake.
 Intake should not be located on curves or sharp curves. If they have to be located on
curves, it will be better to locate them on concave banks rather than locating on
convex banks. Although, scouring tendencies will be more on the concave side, yet
at least the water will remain available on this side, whereas on a convex bank,
water may not remain available due to silting and consequent blockage.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

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The oxford college of engineering

PUMPS
The mechanical device or arrangement by which the water is caused to flow at increased
pressure is known as a pump and the process of using a pump is known as pumping.

Following are the necessity of pumps in water supply schemes.

 To increase the pressure at certain points in the distribution system.

 To lift clear water after treatment to an elevated storage reservoir.
 To lift raw water from lake, reservoir or river for carrying it to a treatment plant.
 To lift water available from wells to an elevated storage tank in stages.
 To make available water at higher pressure during certain processes of treatment.
 To take out from basins, sumps, tanks, etc.
 To throw water directly into the distribution sys

Types of Pumps

Generally in the market various types of pumps are available, but hydraulically the pumps
are classified into;

 Rotodynamic pumps
 Displacement pumps

I) Rotodynamic pumps

( Roto- rotary motion, dynamic- energy or a force that stimulate the changes in a system)

A rotodynamic pump has a wheel or a rotating element, it will rotates the water and thus
imparting energy to the water to flow through the discharge pipes.

The rotating element is called as “impellers”. The shape of the impeller is like that, when it
rotates in water, it will forces out the water in a outward direction at right angles to its axis
(radial flow) or to force the water in axial direction or it may be a mixed flow.

Radial flow and mixed flow machines are called centrifugal pumps, whereas the axial

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machines are called as axial flow pumps.

Centrifugal pumps are the most commonly and widely used pumps. The impellers present
in the centrifugal pumps that may be a open impellers or closed impellers.

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But the efficiency of the impeller centrifuagal pump is less compared to the closed impeller
centrifugal pump, because the open impeller is clogged by the debris or suspended
particles.

When only impeller used in a pump is called as single stage pump. But when two or more
impellers are arranged and placed in such a way that, the discharge from one impeller
enters the eye of the next impeller, is called as multistage pumps. These types of pumps are
useful in high lifts.

Centrifugal Pump

Working Principal:

 The centrifugal pump is a rotodynamic type pump and it works on the principle that
when a vessel containing liquid is rotated about a point, the centrifugal force causes
the liquid level to rise.
 If more liquid is constantly made available at the centre of rotation, a continuous
supply of liquid at a higher level may be ensured. As these pumps are lifting the
liquid due to the centrifugal action, they are known as the centrifugal pumps.

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The oxford college of engineering

 Components of a centrifugal pumps;

 Casing
 Delivery pipe
 Delivery valve
 Impeller
 Prime mover
 Suction pipe
 Strainer and foot valve
 Advantages
 The initial cost and maintenance cost of the centrifugal pumps are
comparatively less than those of other types of pumps
 The design of pump is compact and therefore it can be installed in limited
space.
 It can be run with high speed driving mechanism such as electric motors, gas
engines and steam turbines.
 The flow of water obtained from this pump is non pulsating
 This pump can be used to pump water containing sand, silt, etc.

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 Disadvantages
 The discharge from pumps varies with the head of water. Hence, when uniform
discharge is required under varying heads, a variable speed drive becomes
necessary for this type of pumps.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

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The oxford college of engineering

 When the pump is suddenly stopped with discharge valve in open condition,
there is possibility of pump running backward.
 For high lifts, the efficiency is low and it is about 50-80%.

Priming of a Centrifugal Pumps

 The filling of water to the casing of a pump, suction pipe and a portion of the
delivery pipe before the pump is started is called as priming.
 The main objective of the priming is to remove the trapped air from the pump
casing.
 Because if there is any air or gas trapped in the pump casing, then the impeller
becomes air bounded and incapable of pumping, also air trapped will reduces the
efficiency of the pumps.
 Centrifugal pumps should not be operated until it has been filled with the water.
 A pump installed below the water level normally does not require pumping.

Displacement pumps

Displacement pumps are worked on the principle that of mechanically inducing vacuum in
a chamber and thus sucking in a certain volume of water, which is then mechanically
displaced and forced out of the chamber.

There are two types of displacement pumps.

 Reciprocating pumps
 Rotary pumps

i) Reciprocating pumps (Reciprocating means- moving forward and backward in a

straight line)

 it is still widely used in the Indian villages and it is hand operated well pump called
as hand pumps.
 In this pump, a piston reciprocates in a closed vertical cylinder. This is moved up
and down by hand.

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 On the upstroke, a vacuum gets created in the cylinder, below the piston, thereby
opening the check valve V1 at the base of the pump, thus withdrawing water into
the space below the piston. Simultaneously, the water above the piston is forced out
of the spout.

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 On the down stroke, the check valve V1, gets closed and the piston valve V2 gets
opened, thus permitting water to enter the cylinder above the piston.
 On the next upstroke, the piston valve V2 closes and the water above the piston
comes out of the spout, and at the same time, the check valve V 1 opens, permitting
water to enter the space above the piston. The cycle is thus continued, and
continuous supply of water can be obtained.
 These pumps can be used in any depth. For wells, where the water table is within 6
meter, the cylinder is placed above the ground. Where the water table is more than
6 m below the ground surface, the cylinder is attached to a drop pipe and placed in
the well.

ii) Rotary pumps

 In rotary type of displacement pumps, the rotary motion is used

 The rotary motion is obtained by using two cams or two gears, which mesh together
and rotated in a opposite direction.
 The rotating elements fit the casing closely.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The water enters through the suction pipe and is trapped between the cams or the
teeth of the gears and the casing. Then it is forced out through the discharge pipe as
and when the cams or gear rotates.
 With each revolution, a definite quantity of water thus raised in the discharge pipes.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Factors Considered for the Selection of a Particular type

of Pump

While selecting a particular type of pump to lift the water, some of the following factors to
be required.

 Capacity: it should be capable of pumping the required quantity of water

 Initial cost of pumping arrangement: Initial cost should be less
 Power: The power which is used for running the pumps should be available
easily at low cost
 Maintenance: The maintenance cost of running the pumps should be as small
as possible.
 Space requirement for locating the pump should be available in lesser cost.\
 Number of pumping units required
 Total lift of water required
 Quantity of water to be pumped
 Importance of water supply scheme
 Depreciation: it should have longer life and depreciation cost should be small.

Factors to be considered while locating the pumping Stations

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 The site should be away from all the sources of contamination or pollution
 The site should be above the highest flood level of the river
 The site should be selected in such a way that its future growth and expansion
is easily possible

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

 Possibility of fire hazard should also be considered while selecting the site for
the pumping stations.
 The dry weather flow in the river should also be considered to meet the demand
of a community throughout the year.

Economical Diameter of the Pipe

 If the diameter of the pipe reduces, then the flow velocity increases. But due to the
increase in flow velocity will lead to the higher frictional head loss and thus
increased cost of pumping, and then the horse power required by the pump also
increases.
 For optimum conditions, we must choose such a diameter, which together with the
pumping cost, will make the total annual expenses be the minimum. The diameter
of a pipe, which provides such a optimum condition is called as economical
diameter of the pipe.
 Hence, if the diameter chosen is less than the economical diameter, the cost of
pipe will be less, but the head loss will be high and the cost of pumping shall be
much more than the resultant saving in the pipe cost.
 Similarly if the diameter chosen is more than the economical diameter, the cost of
pumping will be less but the increase in the cost of pipe will be much more than
resultant saving obtained in the cost of pumping.
 An empherical formula given Lea, relating the diameter and discharge, which is
used commonly in practice is given by,
D = 0.97 or 1.22 √Q
Where, D = economical diameter in
meters Q = Discharge to be
pumped in m3
This relationship gives optimum flow velocity varying between 1.35 to 0.8
m/second.
For an analysis, the total cost of pipe and pumping should be worked out at
different flow velocities (between 0.8 to 1.8 m/sec and a graph is plotted between

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

yearly cost and the size of the pipe.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Total Lift or Total Head of a Pump

The total equivalent height that a fluid is to be pumped, taking into account of frictional
losses in th pipe is called as total lift of a pump or total head of a pump.

The total head or lift against which the pump should work includes suction lift, discharge
lift and the total loss of head due to frictional losses in the suction pipe and the rising main.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Suction head = Hs

Discharge or delivery head = Hd

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Total loss of head = hL

The total head or total lift = H = Hs + Hd + hL

The difference between the lowest water level and the eye of an impeller in a pump is
called as suction lift.

The difference between the point of discharge to the eye of an impeller is called as
discharge lift.

Water Horse Power of the pump

(Energy – is the capacity to do work, power – is the rate at which energy is applied to do
work in a system)

“Therefore, the water horse power is the minimum power that is required to move the
water”.

The water horse power can be determined, if the flow rate of the water and the force (pressure)
required to produce that flow are known.

Break Horse Power of the Pump

Pumps can’t convert all of its mechanical energy or power into water kinetic energy of
water. Mechanical power is lost in pumping processes due to friction and other physical
losses. It is because of these losses that the horse power going into the pump must be

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

greater than the water horse power leaving the pump.

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor
The oxford college of engineering

Efficiency of the pump

The ratio of power output of the pump to the power input to the pump is called as overall
efficiency of the pump.

Or

The efficiency of any pump is the ratio defined as the water horse power out divided by the
mechanical horse power into the pump.

Ƞ = (power output of the pump) / (power input to the pump)

Ƞ= %

Department of civil Engineering Ms. Kavya SK

Assistant professor