• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.964-971
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• 2009

In this paper, activated sludge settling was characterized based on field trip and zone settling tests. Plants used for this study include 5 conventional activated sludge processes and 3 A2O type treatment processes. The treatment capacities are in the range from 12,000 to $250,000m^3$/day. Total number of zone settling tests were 188 set and SVI values representing settling characteristics were from 100 to 300 mL/g. It was found out that zone settling velocity of these examined plant sludges can be approximated by mean values calculated by Keinath and Daigger/Roper models. Based on these three models, solid flux analysis were carried out in order to compare design criteria ($3.96{\sim}6.04kg/m^2-hr$) recommended by Korea Sewage Facility Design Guideline with two models used in USA. The results show that design criteria are only applicable for normal condition in settling characteristics (below SVI 100 mL/g). Solid flux analysis of surveyed plants indicates that most of the plants are operated underload conditions except several plants experiencing poor sludge settling problem. Most of the plants are operated under high sludge blanket depths (SBD).