showing 8 related works from this author
A practical protocol for calibration of nutrient removal wastewater treatment models
2011
Activated sludge models can be very useful for designing and managing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, as with every model, they need to be calibrated for correct and reliable application. Activated sludge model calibration is still a crucial point that needs appropriate guidance. Indeed, although calibration protocols have been developed, the model calibration still represents the main bottleneck to modelling. This paper presents a procedure for the calibration of an activated sludge model based on a comprehensive sensitivity analysis and a novel step-wise Monte Carlo-based calibration of the subset of influential parameters. In the proposed procedure the complex calibration i…
Global sensitivity analysis in wastewater treatment modelling
2019
Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) is a valuable tool to support the use of mathematical models. GSA allows the identifcation of the effect of model and input factor uncertainty on the model response, also considering the effect due to the interactions among factors. During recent years, the wastewater modelling feld has embraced the use of GSA. Wastewater modellers have tried to transfer the knowledge and experience from other disciplines and other water modelling felds.
Biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal in membrane bioreactors: model development and parameter estimation
2012
Membrane bioreactors (MBR) are being increasingly used for wastewater treatment. Mathematical modeling of MBR systems plays a key role in order to better explain their characteristics. Several MBR models have been presented in the literature focusing on different aspects: biological models, models which include soluble microbial products (SMP), physical models able to describe the membrane fouling and integrated models which couple the SMP models with the physical models. However, only a few integrated models have been developed which take into account the relationships between membrane fouling and biological processes. With respect to biological phosphorus removal in MBR systems, due to th…
Variance-based sensitivity analysis for wastewater treatment plant modelling.
2014
Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) is a valuable tool to support the use of mathematical models that characterise technical or natural systems. In the field of wastewater modelling, most of the recent applications of GSA use either regression-based methods, which require close to linear relationships between the model outputs and model factors, or screening methods, which only yield qualitative results. However, due to the characteristics of membrane bioreactors (MBR) (non-linear kinetics, complexity, etc.) there is an interest to adequately quantify the effects of non-linearity and interactions. This can be achieved with variance-based sensitivity analysis methods. In this paper, the Extend…
Global sensitivity analysis for urban water quality modelling: Terminology, convergence and comparison of different methods
2015
Abstract Sensitivity analysis represents an important step in improving the understanding and use of environmental models. Indeed, by means of global sensitivity analysis (GSA), modellers may identify both important ( factor prioritisation ) and non-influential ( factor fixing ) model factors. No general rule has yet been defined for verifying the convergence of the GSA methods. In order to fill this gap this paper presents a convergence analysis of three widely used GSA methods (SRC, Extended FAST and Morris screening) for an urban drainage stormwater quality–quantity model. After the convergence was achieved the results of each method were compared. In particular, a discussion on peculiar…
Modelling hydrolysis: Simultaneous versus sequential biodegradation of the hydrolysable fractions
2018
Hydrolysis is considered the limiting step during solid waste anaerobic digestion (including co-digestion of sludge and biosolids). Mechanisms of hydrolysis are mechanistically not well understood with detrimental impact on model predictive capability. The common approach to multiple substrates is to consider simultaneous degradation of the substrates. This may not have the capacity to separate the different kinetics. Sequential degradation of substrates is theoretically supported by microbial capacity and the composite nature of substrates (bioaccessibility concept). However, this has not been experimentally assessed. Sequential chemical fractionation has been successfully used to define i…
Global sensitivity analysis in wastewater applications: A comprehensive comparison of different methods
2013
Three global sensitivity analysis (GSA) methods are applied and compared to assess the most relevant processes occurring in wastewater treatment systems. In particular, the Standardised Regression Coefficients, Morris Screening and Extended-FAST methods are applied to a complex integrated membrane bioreactor (MBR) model considering 21 model outputs and 79 model factors. The three methods are applied with numerical settings as suggested in literature. The main objective considered is to classify important factors (factors prioritisation) as well as non-influential factors (factors fixing). The performance is assessed by comparing the most reliable method (Extended-FAST), by means of proposed…
Numerical solution of a multi-class model for batch settling in water resource recovery facilities
2017
In Torfs et al. (2017) a new unified framework to model settling tanks in water resource recovery facilities was proposed providing a set of partial differential equations (PDEs) modelling different settling unit processes in wastewater treatment such as primary and secondary settling tanks (PSTs and SSTs). The extension to a multi-class framework to deal with the distributed properties of the settling particles leads to a system of non-linear hyperbolic-parabolic PDEs whose solutions may contain very sharp transitions. This necessitates the use of a consistent and robust numerical method to obtain well-resolved and reliable approximations to the PDE solutions. The use of implicit–explicit …