Advanced CFD Modeling of Polychromatic UV Reactors for Disinfection Applications

In this study, a simulation CFD algorithm in Lagrangian framework was developed to rigorously calculate the performance of a polychromatic UV reactor under various design and operational conditions used for disinfection applications. CFD predictions were compared against a set of bioassay experiments in a four lamp cross flow reactor. Model results showed an excellent agreement with the bioassay results for MS2. It was shown that the reflection contribution increases as the UVT and the sensitivity of the target organism to UV increase. The excellent agreement between experiments and simulations demonstrates that the validated CFD model can be confidently used in addressing some of the recently-raised issues associated with the lack of understanding of the convolved disinfection behavior originated by the combined interplay of water, quartz sleeve and microbial action spectra together with the lamp emission characteristics in the germicidal wavelength region.