Impact of asymmetric lamp positioning on the performance of a closed-conduit UV reactor

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses for the performance improvement of a closed-conduit ultraviolet (UV) reactor were performed by changing the lamp positions from symmetric to asymmetric. The asymmetric lamp positioning can be useful for UV reactor design and optimization. This goal was achieved by incorporating the two performance factors, namely reduction equivalent dose (RED) and system dose performance. Four cases were carried out for asymmetric lamp positioning within the UV reactor chamber and each case consisted of four UV lamps that were simulated once symmetrically and four times asymmetrically. The results of the four asymmetric cases were compared with the symmetric one. Moreover, these results were evaluated by using CFD simulations of a closed-conduit UV reactor. The fluence rate model, UVCalc3D was employed to validate the simulations results. The simulation results provide detailed information about the dose distribution, pathogen track modeling and RED. The RED value was increased by approximately 15% by using UVCalc3D fluence rate model. Additionally, the asymmetric lamp positioning of the UV lamps had more than 50% of the pathogens received a better and a higher UV dose than in the symmetric case. Consequently, the system dose performance was improved by asymmetric lamp positioning. It was concluded that the performance parameters (higher RED and system dose performance) were improved by using asymmetric lamp positioning.