Buffalo Algal Turf Scrubber Project

The job consisted of designing a tertiary treatment plant which could treat the nearby buffalo surface water from the local river system. I was tasked as the primary design engineer for the project and designed the series of constructed modular system and budgeted most of the construction costs of the project.

The apparatus is basically a long channel which allows autotrophic growth on its surface and cleans the incoming water stream by the time it leaves the first loop of treatment.

Each channel was designed to be highly cost effective and functional. The overall material chosen would provide a high level of protection from the elements as well as from the incoming fluid stream.

Bi section slice of a typical stretch of channel

Steel rebar (silver), would be coated in primer (brown) and finally in an epoxy sealant (yellow)

The wooden channel would sealed in several coats of epoxy sealant and covered with a 8 mm thick geotextile mat to prevent leakage across the channel.

Each section of channel would interlock and be held in place through these intermediate 

Flow Rate Calculations

$ V = \frac{ k } { n }  R_h ^\frac{2}{3} S^\frac{1}{2}  $

$V = \frac{ 1.4859 ft^\frac{1}{3} } { .02 s } * ( \frac{ W h } { W + 2h } )^\frac{2}{3} (0.015)^\frac{1}{2} $

If W = 16" h = 1.5 "

$ V = 2.029 \frac{ft}{s} $

$Q = V * A = .338 \frac{ft^3}{s} $

$Q = \frac{ 0.338 ft^3 }{s} \frac{7.48052 Gal}{1 ft^3} \frac{60 s}{min} = 151.75 \frac{gal}{min} $



Dump Bucket Moving Centroid Calculations