CFD Simulation of UV Disinfection Reactors: Effect of Baffling on UV Dose Distribution
Several studies have recently investigated application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulation of ultraviolet (UV) reactors for disinfection of wastewater. The objective of these studies has been to predict improvements in the UV Dose distribution that could be achieved from changing reactor geometry and fluid dynamics. The UV Dose distribution describes the variation in UV dose or energy that microorganisms have been exposed to as wastewater flows through the reactor system. Hence improvements in reactor disinfection performance, i.e. percentage microorganisms inactivated, can be achieved by altering the UV Dose distribution. However, reactor systems that include baffles to enhance reactor performance are yet to be studied. In this paper, CFD is applied to demonstrate that baffling significantly improved the UV Dose distribution of an existing commercial reactor-geometry. The implications of this finding for design of new or retrofit improvements for a range of industrial UV disinfection reactor systems are discussed.