CAREER: A Unified Approach to Understanding, Education, and Design of Disinfection Processes Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

拟议的职业发展计划寻求将研究和教育结合起来，以开创消毒过程综合特征的创新技术。这项研究将使用计算流体动力学(CFD)模型作为数值工具：a)设计和评估整个消毒过程，b)开发一个互动消毒教育模块，该模块将被整合到民用和环境课程以及两个新课程中，一个是针对高中生的为期一天的入门课程，另一个是针对执业工程师的为期四天的关于增强消毒分析工具的课程。美国环保局正在考虑对消毒副产品(DBP)法规进行广泛修订。与此同时，水处理专业人员面临着改善饮用水质量和降低水源性疾病暴发风险的挑战性任务。根据地表水处理规则(SWTR)，美国环保局发布了地表水水源处理的消毒规定。这一规则中的基本假设是，消毒剂浓度和接触时间(CT)的特定组合将导致目标微生物一定程度的灭活。然而，EPA用来量化微生物灭活量的这些技术不仅被发现过于保守，而且可能会促进DBP的形成。本研究计划建议使用CFD来i)开发和评估通过连续流动系统预测出水微生物灭活的替代消毒模型，以及ii)评估消毒剂注射方法和多个消毒剂注射点对微生物灭活和DBP形成的影响。计划中的一系列试点和全面测试将有助于验证数值结果。这项研究的另一个主要组成部分是开发一种协议，该协议将帮助工程师为具有独特原水水质条件和预消毒过程的特定水处理厂定制CFD模型。该教育计划包括开发CFD消毒教育模块。培训模块将建立在CFD消毒模型的基础上。然而，学生将不被要求学习CFD建模。CFD消毒教育模块将围绕图形用户界面(GUI)进行设计，图形用户界面将成为用户与CFD模型之间通信的主要模式。教学单元由三部分组成：i)电源点/基于视频的消毒流程系列讲座，ii)解决消毒问题和模拟示踪试验，iii)基于团队的消毒设计项目。此外，将为高中生开发使用部分消毒教育模块的消毒短期课程，以及为实习工程师开发另一门关于增强消毒分析工具的课程。包括咨询工程师、水处理厂专业人员和学者在内的充满活力的伙伴关系将有助于确保这项研究涉及的各个阶段的成功。

The proposed career development plan seeks to integrate research and education to pioneerinnovative techniques for comprehensive characterization of disinfection processes. This research will use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models as a numerical tool to: a) design and assess the overall disinfection process and b) develop an interactive disinfection education module that will be integrated into the civil and environmental curricula as well as into two new courses, a one-day introductory course for high school students and a four-day course on enhanced-disinfection analysis tools for practicing engineers.The EPA is considering extensive revisions to the disinfection by-products (DBP) regulations. At the same time, water treatment professionals are faced with the challenging task of improving drinking water quality and reducing the risk of waterborne disease outbreaks.Under the Surface Water Treatment Rule (SWTR), the EPA has published disinfection regulationsfor treatment of surface water sources. The basic assumption in this rule is that a specific combination of disinfectant concentration and contact time (CT) will lead to a certain degree of inactivation of the target microorganism. However, these techniques used by EPA to quantify the amount of microbial inactivation have not only been found to be too conservative but may also promote DBP formation.This research program proposes to use CFD to I) develop and evaluate alternative disinfectionmodels for the prediction of effluent microbial inactivation through continuous flow systems and II) assess the impact of disinfectant injection methods and multiple disinfectant injection points on microbial inactivation and DBP formation. A planned set of pilot- and full-scale testing will help validate the numerical results. Another major component of this research is the development of a protocol that will help engineers customize CFD models for a specific water treatment plant with unique raw water quality conditions and pre-disinfection processes. The educational plan involves the development of a CFD disinfection-education module. Theeducation module will be built on the foundations of the CFD disinfection model. However, students will not be required to learn CFD modeling. The CFD disinfection-education module will be designed around a graphical user interface (GUI) that will be the primary mode of communication between the user and the CFD model. The education module is composed of three sections: I) power point/video-based disinfection process-lecture series, II) solved disinfection problems and simulated tracer tests, and III) team-based disinfection design projects. Furthermore, a short course on disinfection using a portion of the disinfection-education module will be developed for high school students as well as another course on enhanced disinfection analysis tools for practicing engineers. A dynamic partnership involving consulting engineers, water treatment-plant professionals, and academics will help ensure the success of the various phases involved in this research.