• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.47-51
• /
• 2011

The oxygen transfer rate is a parameter that characterizes the gas-liquid mass transfer in surface aerators. Gas-liquid transfer mechanisms in surface aeration tanks depend on two different extreme lengths of time; namely, macromixing and micromixing. Small scale mixing close to the molecular level is referred to as micromixing; whereas, macromixing refers to mixing on a large scale. Using experimental data and numerical simulations, macro- and micro-scale parameters describing the two extreme time scales were investigated. A scale up equation to simulate the oxygen transfer rate with micromixing times was developed in geometrically similar baffled surface aerators.