Interaction of flow field and biofilm formation in a dripper supplied by reclaimed wastewater

In order to improve the knowledge of these mechanisms, the objective was to combine the numerical flow simulations to three-dimensional measurements of biofilm along a milli-fluidic system (nominal flow rate 1L/h) fed by treated wastewater. At first, using the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) method and based to Qian et al, 2018 studies, the bio-clogging structure was measured at different levels of fouling (up to 77% of channel volume). Secondly, the new fouled dripper geometries were integrated to 3D CFD models (using comsol multiphysics software) to analyse the effect of biofilm on flow topology and the dripper hydraulic parameters (pressure drop, shear stress, turbulence kinetic energy in particular).