Hello,

I am a recent graduate (may 2012) and new hire with a relatively small company with little to no internal reference sources, training, or design manuals, or other engineers, etc. I was tasked with designing a skim pile to remove oil contaminants from 500 PPM to 20 PPM. Doing research and looking online I could find no rigorous calculation techniques to ensure my design will reach its target ppm's. I am considering developing an algorithm myself to estimate it's performance under ideal conditions however, I am unsure of dynamics of the different flow regimes in such a configuration. I am also unsure whether the terminal velocity calculated using newtons equation ( v=1.74(g*d(p1-p2)/p2)^1/2 ) is applicable. I am assuming turbulent flow in and around the primary flow channels through the baffles, and the rise velocity of the oil droplet I calculate is greater with newton's equation than with Stoke's Law. On the one hand that makes sense, being the drag is less, but on the flip side wouldn't the random particle motion of the turbulent flow hinder the progression of the oil droplet as it rises. I also need a starting point with the baffle spacing, angles, length, etc. any help would be much appreciated. i have included a picture of typical skim pile I found online. Is it safe to assume these flow regimes. should i do a vector calculation to find a true rise velocity since the water flow is angled and the oil rise is vertical. As you can tell I have a lot of questions about this design and any techniques to modeling these types of separators would be great.

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