Aggregate settling velocity of combined sewage overflow

In order to better model the fate and transport of material in a combined sewer overflow (CSO), hydrologic and geochemical measurements were made during a storm event in Flushing Bay, NY, USA. Particle size, total suspended solids concentrations, and CSO solid density are used to calculate the settling velocity of aggregates of the CSO material. Roughly half of the material that is discharged from the outfall sinks rapidly to the bottom, while the other half forms a turbid surface plume in fresher water. The dry solid density of the CSO material was 1589 kg m−3 and the volume fraction of solid material to total aggregate volume ranged from 0.1 to 1.0. The settling velocity estimates of aggregated material in the surface plume ranged from about 0.5 to 9.0 mm s−1 with a median settling velocity of 2.9 mm s−1. A strong inverse relationship between the size of the aggregates and the aggregate density resulted in a fractal dimension of the aggregates of 2.3.