The breakage of flocs is dependent upon the strength of the bonds holding the aggregate together. The present work describes the breakage and re-growth behaviour of three different types of floc, these were: 1) coagulant precipitate flocs, 2) turbidity flocs and 3) organic matter flocs. Floc aggregates were exposed to increased levels of shear on a conventional jar tester and the sizes of the flocs were observed dynamically using a laser diffraction instrument. The organic flocs showed most resistance to breakage across the whole range of shears under investigation. The dynamic procedure provided detailed information on particle size distributions (PSD). Large and small scale degradation events could be identified from analysis of the PSD data. All of the flocs under investigation showed little re-growth potential after breakage. The precipitate and organic flocs showed slightly better re-aggregation of the small floc sizes.
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Research Article|
December 01 2004
The duplicity of floc strength
P. Jarvis;
1School of Water Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, United Kingdom (E-mail: b.jefferson@cranfield.ac.uk; s.a.parsons@cranfield.ac.uk)
E-mail: p.jarvis@cranfield.ac.uk
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B. Jefferson;
B. Jefferson
1School of Water Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, United Kingdom (E-mail: b.jefferson@cranfield.ac.uk; s.a.parsons@cranfield.ac.uk)
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S. Parsons
S. Parsons
1School of Water Sciences, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL, United Kingdom (E-mail: b.jefferson@cranfield.ac.uk; s.a.parsons@cranfield.ac.uk)
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Water Sci Technol (2004) 50 (12): 63–70.
Citation
P. Jarvis, B. Jefferson, S. Parsons; The duplicity of floc strength. Water Sci Technol 1 December 2004; 50 (12): 63–70. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2004.0696
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