Numerical simulation and flow field analysis of backwashing of quartz sand filter in micro-irrigation

Abstract: Backwashing of quartz sand filter in micro-irrigation is an effective way to realize the regeneration of quartz sand filter media. Analysis of flow field in the backwashing process of quartz sand filter and determination of reasonable backwashing velocity play an important role in the design and operation of the quartz sand filter. The method of numerical simulation has obvious advantage in the analysis and investigation of the flow field in the filter layer. In order to realize the numerical simulation of the backwashing process of quartz sand filter, the geometric model of quartz sand filter was established through Gambit software, and the mesh division of the geometric model was carried out. Because the backwashing process of quartz sand filter layer is a solid-liquid multiphase flow system interacted by both water and quartz sand, in which quartz sand particles are distributed only in a part of the region during the process of backwashing, not being carried away to outside of the filter by the stream, and in which quartz sand accounted for a larger proportion of the whole volume, the Eulerian model was adopted as a model for numerical simulation of backwashing. At the same time, because the backwashing process of quartz sand filter layer is a dynamically stable process, the transient simulation solver was adopted. The simulation objects were three kinds of quartz sand filter layer with the same thickness of 400 mm, but the equivalent particle size were 1.06, 1.2 and 1.5 mm respectively. In order to verify the reliability of simulation results, backwashing experiments were conducted in Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, in 2014. The parameters such as backwashing velocity, pressure drop and expansion height of filter layer were measured. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results. Comparison showed that the maximum simulation error of the whole pressure drop of filter layer was 7.03%, and the maximum simulation error of filter layer density was 1.93%. It was proved that the numerical simulation results were reliable. On this basis, the fluctuation trend of pressure drop with time and the variation trend of the mean value and the standard deviation of the pressure drop with backwashing velocity in backwashing process of quartz sand filter layer were analyzed. If the standard deviation of pressure drop is large, it shows that the fluctuation of pressure drop is unstable, and the unstable fluctuation of pressure drop will affect the effect of backwashing. This result can determine the reasonable range of the backwashing velocity. Then, the distribution rule of the filter layer density with time, the variation trend of the mean value and the standard deviation of the density with the change of the backwashing velocity were analyzed. When the density is close to the static density of the mixture composed of water and quartz sand, the effect of backwashing is poor. When the standard deviation of density is too large, partial concentration phenomenon will appear in the filter layer, which will cause negative influence on the effect of backwashing. Thus, the reasonable range of the backwashing velocity was determined. After combined the rules of pressure drop fluctuation and density distribution, the reasonable ranges of the backwashing velocity of three kinds of filter layer are obtained as 0.0149-0.0212, 0.0146-0.0218 and 0.0191-0.0261 m/s respectively. The research results provided a theoretical basis for the mechanism of quartz sand filter in the process of backwashing. It also provided a technical support for the operation of the sand filter.