Validation of Integral and Turbulence Models for Saline Wastewater Discharged into the Sea Environment

With the reduction of natural sources of fresh water, the activity of desalination factories is increasing. The effluent of these factories is returned to the sea environment. The effluent contains a lot of chemicals and salt, which in case of improper discharge will disturb the balance of the sea environment. Using numerical models to check different discharge methods is one of the cheapest methods. In this research, the results of CORJET, VISJET and RNG (k-ε) models are validated for the discharge of concentrated wastewater. For this purpose, the simulation results of these models in static and dynamic environments are compared with the results of various laboratory studies. According to the results, the RNG model estimates the axial velocity of the jet well and with a small error compared to the integral and laboratory models. All three models estimate most of the parameters related to the discharge of concentrated wastewater in comparison with the laboratory studies. CORJET and VISJET models estimate the amount of effluent dilution with a high error, but the RNG model estimates the amount of effluent dilution with an acceptable error due to the consideration of flow turbulence. The most important advantage of CORJET and VISJET integral models is easy modeling and very low calculation time compared to RNG turbulence model. According to the presented results, it can be concluded that the RNG model is suitable for carrying out studies related to the discharge of concentrated wastewater from desalination plants due to considering the flow turbulence and providing accurate results.