Numerical study of effects of flushing gate height and sediment bed properties on cleaning efficiency in a simplified self-cleaning device.

Sediment accumulation in combined sewers can induce blockage and odor problems. Among various cleaning methods, using self-cleaning device-generated flushing waves has been thought to be an effective solution. In this study, a series of numerical tests were conducted using CFD software to investigate the cleaning efficiency of deposited sediment particles based on a simplified self-cleaning device. The CFD model was validated by the experimental and numerical results in the literature. The effects of several parameters including the flushing gate height, sediment bed thickness, sediment bed length, and sediment bed position on cleaning efficiency were discussed. A relative accumulative transport rate was defined to analyze the cleaning efficiency. Results showed that the lowest height of the flushing gate had the best effects on sediment removal. The flushing waves generated from the sudden opening of the flushing gate were capable of cleaning sediment deposits in the given initial sediment bed thickness, length, and position. The required time duration for cleaning the sediment deposit completely increased about 6, 3, and 3 times when the sediment bed thickness, sediment bed length, and distance between the flushing gate and sediment bed increased 10, 4, and 7 times, respectively.