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Aeration efficiency over stepped cascades: Better

predictions from flow regimes
Hatem Khdhiri*, Olivier Potier, Jean-Pierre Leclerc
Laboratoire Reactions et Genie des Procedes, UMR 7274 CNRS, Universite de Lorraine, 1 rue Grandville, 54001 Nancy,
France

article info

abstract

Article history:

Stepped cascades are recognized as high potential airewater gas exchangers. In natural

Received 19 September 2013

rivers, these structures enhance oxygen transfer to water by creating turbulence at inter-

Received in revised form

face with increasing air entrainment in water and airewater surface exchange. Stepped

3 February 2014

cascades could be really useful to improve the natural self-purification process by

Accepted 6 February 2014

providing oxygen to aerobic micro-organisms. The aeration performance of these struc-

Available online 17 February 2014

tures depends on several operating and geometrical parameters. In the literature, several
empirical correlations for aeration efficiency prediction on stepped cascades exist. Most of

Keywords:

these correlations are only applicable for operating and geometrical parameters in the

Oxygen transfer

range of which they have been developed. In this paper, 398 experimental sets of data

Stepped spillways design

(from our experiments and collected from literature) were used to develop a correlation for

Modeling

aeration prediction over stepped cascades derived from dimensional analysis and

Self-purification

parameterized for each individual flow regime in order to consider change in flow regime

River

effect on oxygen transfer. This new correlation allowed calculating the whole set of data

Cascade

obtained for cascades with steps heights between 0.05 m and 0.254 m, cascade total height
between 0.25 m and 2.5 m, for discharges per unit of width ranging from 0.28 10
3 m2/s to
600 10
3 m2/s and for cascade steps number between 3 and 25. In these ranges of parameters, standard deviation for aeration efficiency estimation was found to be less than
17%. Finally, advices were proposed to help and improve the structure design in order to
improve aeration.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1.

Introduction

Dissolved oxygen concentration is an important indicator of

water quality in natural environment. Oxygen deficit in
aquatic systems occurs when water is highly polluted or in
calm or stagnant canal or river. Natural water systems could
have a potential to eliminate the pollution and restore
ecological properties by self-purification processes. The main

process requires dissolved oxygen for chemical and mainly

biological mechanisms involving aerobic microorganisms. In
case of O2 deficit, biological processes and chemical oxidations are limited. Then, natural system is not able to reduce
pollution concentration with harmful consequences on water
quality and aquatic species. Thus, enhancing oxygenation in
watercourses represents a good solution to improve selfpurification process. If oxygen is spontaneously transferred
by diffusion phenomenon, which depend essentially on

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 33383175170.

E-mail addresses: hatem.khdhiri@univ-lorraine.fr (H. Khdhiri), olivier.potier@univ-lorraine.fr (O. Potier), jean-pierre.leclerc@univlorraine.fr (J.-P. Leclerc).
0043-1354/$ e see front matter 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2014.02.022

w a t e r r e s e a r c h 5 5 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 9 4 e2 0 2

Nomenclature
a
a
b
C
Cs
CU
CD
Ci
Do2
D, Di
E20
Fr*
F
g
h
H:
He
hc
KL
Ka
K

cascade slope
airewater interfacial area (m2)
probability of nullity
dissolved oxygen concentration (mg/L).
dissolved oxygen saturation concentration (mg/L)
upstream dissolved oxygen concentration (mg/L)
downstream dissolved oxygen concentration
(mg/L)
oxygen concentration at airewater interface
(mg/L)
diffusion constant of oxygen in the water (m2.s
1)
diffusivity of oxygen at T, Ti temperatures (m2.s
1)
aeration efficiency at 20  C
roughness Froude number as defined by Baylar
et al. (2006) Fr* qW/(g.sin a.h3)1/2
oxygen transfer rate (mg.L
1.s
1)
gravity constant (m/s2)
step height (m)
total cascade height (m)
Henry constant for O2 (Pa. L. mg
1)
critical water depth (m)
water side global transfer coefficient of oxygen
(m.s
1)
air side global transfer coefficient of oxygen (m.s
1)
global transfer coefficient of oxygen (m.s
1)

concentration gradient between the two phases as well as

exchange surface, this process is slow in calm water. However, oxygen transfer could be particularly accelerated by
hydraulic structures such as stepped cascades. Generally,
oxygen transferred on a stepped cascade is quantitatively
equivalent to a transfer on several kilometers of linear
streams (Baylar et al., 2006).
Artificial stepped cascades have been used for more than
3500 years. These structures were used in aqueducts in some
antic Roman cities (Chanson, 2001). In civil engineering, these
structures are recognized as efficient energy dissipaters used
to prevent erosion and damage of dikes and dams. Moreover,
stepped cascades could be used to eliminate chlorine, tastes
and odors of drinkable waters (Baylar et al., 2010) and for
volatile organic compounds stripping (Toombes and Chanson,
2000). The aeration potential of these structures has been
extensively studied by several authors.
Gameson (1957) is one of the first authors to be interested
in the aeration by stepped cascades. Since then, several authors studied oxygen transfer by these hydraulic structures.
The aeration efficiency was measured by Tebbutt (1972) on a
laboratory stepped cascade essentially for discharges below
4 L/s, cascade total height was of 1.8 m and a maximum steps
number of 25 were tested. Essery et al. (1978) proposed a correlation to predict cascades aeration efficiency with steps
height between 0.025 and 0.5 m and for discharges between
1.5 L/s and 22 L/s. Toombes and Chanson (2005) studied the
oxygenation on a stepped waterway with low chute slope
(about 3.4 , the steps length was about 17 time more important than steps heights) and for high discharges between 19
and 300 L/s. Baylar et al. 2006, 2007b, 2007c, 2010); Baylar and

l
L
La
Li
n
Po2
q
qw
r, ri
RH

r
Re
s, si
T
t
m, mi
V
W
x
Xi, Yi

195

step length (m)

cascade length (m)
length of aerated flow on the stepped cascade (m)
length of non aerated flow on the stepped cascade
(m)
number of steps
partial pressure of O2 in the air (Pa)
water flowrate (m3/s)
water flowrate per unit of width (m2/s)
density of water at T, Ti temperatures (Kg.m
3)
inflow hydraulic radius (m) the ratio of the cross
sectional area to the wetted perimeter of inflow
channel
aeration deficit ratio
Reynolds number
airewater surface tension at T, Ti temperatures
(N.m
1)
water temperature ( C)
the Student tests parameter
dynamic viscosities of water at T, Ti temperatures
(Kg. m
1.s
1)
water volume on the cascade (m3)
channel width (m)
pseudo-roughness height (m)
Baylar et al. (2007b) correlations coefficients

Bagatur (2007); Baylar and Emiroglu (2003) conducted a large

number of water aeration experiments on laboratory stepped
cascade. They characterized the oxygenation by several
empirical correlations for discharges between 5 L/s and 50 L/s;
cascade total height was between 1.2 and 2.5 m and maximum
steps number of 50. Generally, previous correlations neglect
the effects of some significant parameters and are only
applicable on restricted conditions. So, Esserys correlation
ignores viscosity and steps length effects. Baylar et al. correlations are purely empirical and neglect the effects of steps
number on aeration.
The aim of this paper is to develop a more general correlation for aeration efficiency prediction on stepped cascade,
useful for design in wide range of parameters. The experimental measures as well as the data collected in the literature
are used. Dimensional analysis was used to determine the
type and the number of parameters to be considered in
aeration efficiency modeling.

2.

Bibliographic review

2.1.

Air water mass transfer

According to Whitman and Lewis theory of double film, the

interface between two fluids can be considered as two stagnant thin films where solute transfer takes place; one on the
liquid side described by the coefficient KL and the other on the
gas side (Roustan, 2003). For slightly soluble gases in water, the
resistance to the transfer liquid side is much more important
than the one on the gas side.

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Fig. 1 e Flow regimes over stepped cascade: (a) nappe flow, (b) transition flow, (c) skimming flow.
The transfer rate of oxygen from air to water can be
expressed as:

E20 1
1
E1=f

(5)


a
a Po2

C
4 kL $ $Ci
C KL $ $
V
V He

f 1 2:1$10
2 T
20 8:26$ 10
5 T
202

(6)

(1)

Po2/.He represents the oxygen concentration in water

which is in equilibrium with oxygen concentration on gaseous
phase. This quantity represents the saturation oxygen concentration in water. Then:
a
4 KL $ $CS
C
V

(2)

Transfer coefficient KL determination requires informations about the system hydrodynamics to reach the
value of oxygen concentration within the studied system.
However, aeration can be evaluated by the aeration efficiency
E (Gameson, 1957) without knowledge of the system hydrodynamics by measuring three concentrations: CU, CD and CS
(respectively upstream, downstream and saturation concentrations). For a given aeration system, with no oxygen consumption, aeration efficiency E could be calculated between
upstream and downstream as:
CD
CU
1
E1

r
CS
CU

(3)

The value of aeration efficiency E is between 0 and 1. When

total transfer occurs E 1. E 0 in the case of no transfer. r is
the oxygen deficit.

2.2.

Temperature impact on aeration efficiency

The diffusion coefficient of dissolved oxygen and oxygen

saturation concentration in the water depend on temperature.
Thus, aeration efficiency E is dependent on the temperature
(Gameson et al., 1958; Demars and Manson, 2013).
Gulliver et al. (1990) developed a relation involving the influence of viscosity, surface tension, water density and gas
diffusivity in water effects to calculate the aeration efficiency
for different temperature/compounds (indexed by i):
Ln 1
Ei Ln 1
E$

1=2
3=4
3=5
17=20

Di
m
s
r
$
$
$ i
mi
si
D
r

(4)

Gulliver et al. (1990) showed a good agreement of this

relation with the experimental data of Gameson (Gulliver
et al., 1993). By using the relation (4), if E20 is the oxygenation efficiency in 20  C, the efficiency E at a temperature T can
be calculated by the following relation:

2.3.

Flow hydrodynamic on stepped cascade

Hydrodynamic regime has an important impact on oxygen

transfer. In a stepped cascade, there are three main flow regimes: nappe regime, transition regime and a skimming
regime (Chanson, 1994):
*Nappe regime: The flow is a series of small consecutive
falls (Fig. 1a). Generally, this flow type occurs for low water
flowrates and/or important steps lengths.
*Skimming regime: In this flow regime, recirculation zones
with horizontals axes take place between steps outer edges
(Fig. 1c). These vortices are maintained between steps by
shear stress. Generally, this flow type occurs for high
flowrates and/or small steps lengths (Chanson, 1998).
*Transition regime: It is the intermediate regime which
marks the transition between nappe regime and skimming
regime (see Fig. 1b). This regime was introduced for the first
time by Ohtsu and Yasuda (1997).
At the approach of the first step edge, the flow conditions
change from sub-critical flow in a critical flow. The water
depth passes by a critical value hc, which corresponds to a
minimum of specific energy and to a Froude number equal to 1
(Chanson, 1994).
hc

2.4.

q2=3
W2=3 $g1=3

(7)

Aeration efficiency correlations

In the literature, there are several correlations of oxygenation

prediction over stepped cascades. Several geometrical and
hydrodynamic parameters were tested as the Table 1 shows.
From equation (3) and equation (5) we have:


1=f
CD
CU
E20 1
1

CS
CU

(8)

Essery et al. (1978) developed an empirical correlation from

measures on a laboratory prototype with various heights of
cascades/steps and different water flowrates. The relationship between these parameters and E20 is expressed as:

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Table 1 e Summary of aeration experiments on stepped cascades.

Authors

Number of used data

Gameson (1957)
Tebbutt (1972)
Essery et al. (1978)
Baylar and Emiroglu
(2003); Baylar et al. (2006)
Toombes and Chanson (2005)
This paper

E20

Geometric parameters

Hydrodynamic
parameters

h (m)

l (m)

W (m)

H (m)

q (10-3 m3/s)

hc (m)

e
55
e
126

e
0.05e0.254
0.025e0.5
0.05e0.15

e
0.07e0.254
e
0.07e0.6

e
0.3e0.15
0.15
0.3

0.9-2.2
1.8
2
1.2e2.5

e
0.084e3.9
1.5e21.75
5e50

e
0.002e0.025
0.0047e0.465
0.03e0.15

12
205

0.1433
0.05e0.10

2.4
0.10e0.14

0.5
0.15e0.3

1.72
0.25e0.5

19e300
0.3e2.5

0.086e0.132
0.007e0.03

!
H
hc
1
exp
p 0; 427 0; 31
h
gh

(9)

hc is the critical depth: the flow depth at a Froude number

equal to 1. Calculated E20 increases with cascade total height H
and water discharge. However, Baylar et al. (2006) experiments in skimming flow showed an aeration efficiency
decrease with discharge increase. For a given cascade total
height H, increasing steps height h implies a decreasing in
calculated E20. Besides, this model does not consider the steps
length as a parameter influencing oxygen transfer.
Baylar et al. (2006, 2007b, 2010) have developed several
aeration efficiency correlations. Baylar et al. (2006) have
calculated the aeration as a function of chute slope, step
height h and of a Froude number defined in terms of macroroughness (the cascade steps are considered as roughness).
Froude number Fr* is defined as: Fr* qW/(q$ina$ h3)1/2
Then, aeration efficiency at 20  C is:

Correlations (12) and (13) do not consider number of cascades steps effect on oxygen uptake.
Yi and Xi are functions of the flow regimes as Table 2
shows.
The experiments of Tebbutt (1972) (Table 1) were realized
at 9  C and 14  C. These data were corrected using the relation
of Gulliver et al. (1990) (equations (5) and (6)) in order to estimate the aeration efficiency at 20  C.

3.

Experimental section

La represents the length of aerated flow which is the difference between cascade length L and the length of nonaerated flow Li (equation (11)).

The experimental set-up design used to collect experimental

data is given Fig. 2. Compared to a real water stream, it offers
two main advantages: firstly, the possibility to vary height,
length, width and number of cascade steps in a given range of
dimensions, and secondly to remove dissolved oxygen; its
afterwards possible to observe the re-aeration process.
The dissolved oxygen contained in tap water is first
partially consumed by adding sodium sulfite and Cobalt
dichloride as catalyst in a 1 m3 volume agitated tank. 50e55 g/
m3 of Na2SO3 were used to deoxygenate water in order to set
oxygen concentration in the storage tank between 1 mg/L and
2.5 mg/L for temperatures between 9 and 21  C. Dissolved
oxygen in water is consumed according to the following reaction (Bo et al., 2005):


Li
 2:98
cos a 1:88Fr0:35 0:17Fr
h

SO2

3

 
1;34

La
E20 1
8:24 10
4 Fr1:65 0:50 F1:34
r
h
 
0;50 0;28
L
a
2; 23 10
2
h

(10)

(11)

Later, Baylar et al. (2007c) developed an empirical correlation for E20 prediction on a single step in nappe flow depending on 3 parameters (qw, h, a):
i
h
1:594
E120 1
exp
5:730 q
0:035
h0:998 cosa12:042 sina
w

(12)

with 14 < a < 30 .

According to Baylar et al. (2007b), the sensibility of the
aeration to the various parameters varies with flow regimes.
They developed a correlation with 3 sets of coefficients
considering the flow regime effect. The aeration efficiency can
be given by the following relation:
"
X

E20 1
exp 1 X1 $sin a 2 $

X3
hc
$
h
!#

X4 X5

 L
Y1 $hY2 $qY3 $cos aY4

(13)

1
Co2
O2 / SO2

4
2

(14)

The variation of oxygen Henrys constant at this amount of

sulfite remains negligible and then has not significant effect
on oxygen solubility in water (Watson et al., 1998).
The partially deoxygenated water flows above the cascade.
Dissolved oxygen concentrations measured in upstream and
downstream, as well as saturation concentration by METTLER
TOLEDO SG9 oximeters provided with Inlab Optiox optical
electrodes allowing aeration efficiency E calculation.
In our experiments, several configurations have been tested:
*cascade with 3, 4 and 5 steps h l 10 cm.
*cascade with 3, 4 and 5 steps h 10 cm and l 14 cm
*cascade with 5, 8 and 10 steps h 5 cm and l 10 cm
Low cascades heights (between 0.25 and 0.5 m) were chosen to study oxygen transfer enhancement in small water
streams. So, as mentioned above, number of steps is varying
between 3 and 10. This choice was made to obtain maximum

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Table 2 e Xi, Yi variation with flow regimes (Baylars, 2007b) (equation (14)).
Flow regime
Skimming
Transition
Nappe

Y1

Y2

Y3

Y4

X1

X2

X3

X4

X5

2.643
3.256
6.834

0.508
0.043
0.749

0.896
0.504
0.205

1.708
0.991
0.915

1.704

0.250

0.265

0.448

3.292

2.661

0.078
0.063
0.007

0.419

2.705

2.057

0.992

1.387

1.575

experimental data to investigate number of steps effect with a

minimum value of height of 5 cm. Channel was large enough
to avoid edge effects.

4.

Results and discussion

4.1.

Aeration efficiency correlation determination model

Aeration in stepped cascades was modeled referring to

dimensional analysis by Buckingham theorem application (Le
Moullec et al., 2008). It stipulates that any physical quantity
can be expressed with peq dimensionless numbers (p is the
number of parameters and q is the number of their physical
dimensions).
In the case of cascade, oxygen transfer depends on several
parameters. After studying different experiments, we propose
to use 8 significant parameters in the model. They can be
classified as proposed in Table 3.
(L, M and T symbolize respectively the fundamental physical dimensions of length, mass and time). Temperature effect
on the aeration is included on the equation (8). Gravity effect is
implicitly included in hc expression.
These 8 parameters are expressed by 3 dimensions.
Therefore, 5 dimensionless numbers are necessary and sufficient to model aeration efficiency over stepped cascade:

RH

The resulting equation of oxygen uptake on cascade is a

function of the chosen dimensionless numbers and 5 coefficients as:

a2
a3
a4
H
hc
h
$
$
E20 A$Rae 1 $
h
l
H

(15)

W$hc
2$hc W

This number represents a comparison between inertia

forces and viscosity forces. It characterizes the turbulence
level.

(16)

A, a1, a2, a3 and a4 were determined by fitting available data

(from literature and our experimental data) with the equation
(16). From a design point of view, the aeration efficiency can be
also expressed as:
E20 A$Rae 1 $na2 $

a3
hc
$tan aa4
H

(17)

n is the number of steps, a is the global cascade chute slope.

4.2.

 The inflow Reynolds number defined as:

q$RH $r
Re
hc $W$m

 The ratio H/h represents the number of cascade steps effect, when steps have uniform height.
 The ratio hc/H related the water critical depth and the total
cascade height. It expresses the gravity and inflow conditions effects on aeration.
 The ratio h/l expresses the effect of steps geometry on
aeration.
 The efficiency E20 is the ratio between the transferred
quantity of oxygen and the maximal quantity susceptible
to be transferred at 20  C (equation (3)).

Flow regime prediction

As described below, the flow regimes are identified by simple

visual observation according to water behavior on the cascade.
It is a function of inflow conditions (critical water depth), and
steps dimensions (h, l). Several authors determined the limits
between the flow regimes by empirical equations.
Increasing steps height and decreasing the ratio h/l and
flow rate q further nappe flow. Inversely, decreasing steps
height and increasing flow rate q and (h/l) ratio furthers
skimming regime.

Fig. 2 e Scheme of experimental apparatus.

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2.5

Table 3 e Parameters influencing stepped cascade

aeration.
Properties
Physical properties

Flow properties
Geometric
properties

Frx

Parameters

Fundamental
units

r water density
m water dynamic
viscosity
Q water flowrate
h step height
hc flow critical height
l steps length
W cascade width
H stepped cascade
total height

M.L
3
M.L
1.T
1

1.5

L3.T
1
L
L
L
L
L

0.5
this paper
Baylar et al (2003, 2006)
0
0

For their 126 experiments, Baylar and Emiroglu (2003);

Baylar et al. (2006) mentioned the flow regimes. Under their
experimental conditions, the 3 regimes were observed. In our
case, skimming flow was not reached under our experimental
conditions because it is not efficient as nappe/transition for
aeration. Only nappe and transition flows were observed. The
twelve measurements of efficiency from Toombes and
Chanson (2005) were realized in a nappe flow. On the other
hand, there was no indication about flow regimes for
Tebbutts (1972) data.
According to Baylar and Emiroglu (2003); Baylar et al. (2006)
observations and our study, flow regimes can be distinguished
by a dimensionless number Frx calculation. It compares inflow
kinetic energy to gravity forces at the scale of macro-roughness represented by the steps.
qw =hc
Frx p
g$x

h
 c
 
h$cos a tan hl

!1=2
(18)

x represents the height of the pseudo-roughness, which is the

distance between the internal edge and plan passing by the
steps outer edges
For Baylar and Emiroglu (2003); Baylar et al. (2006) observations, nappe flow occurred for Frx lower than 0.8 and
skimming flow took place when Frx was over 1. For our experiments, the limit between nappe and transition flows was
observed for Frx about 0.5.
For both experiments, nappe flow took place for Frx under
0.5e0.8 and skimming flow when Frx is over 1.1.
Thus, Tebbutt (1972) data were classified on the basis of the
number Frx (nappe flow if Frx  0.5; transition flow if
0.5  Frx  1.1 and skimming flow when Frx  1.1) as showed in
the Fig. 3. These results are valid for stepped channel slope
between 14 and 50 and not applicable to Toombes and
Chanson (2005) experiments with too low channel slope
about 3.5 .

4.3.

Nappe

Transition

Skimming

Fig. 3 e Variation of flow regimes over stepped cascade

with Frx.

flow regime. In another terms, the effects of operational and

geometric parameters on the aeration varies from one regime
to another. Preliminary simulations have shown that it is
possible to have a good representation of all the data with only
one correlation as illustrated Fig. 4. However, it clearly appears that the data issue from each regime is not statistically
distributed around the correlation straight line. Therefore,
taking into account the process, we considered it would be
better to determine three different sets of parameters based
on the same correlation to characterize the aeration of each
regime. Table 4 represents the coefficients A, a1, a2, a3 and a4
for each flow regime. Statistics based on the calculation of
student parameter t allowed testing the sensibility of
oxygenation efficiency to the used dimensionless number. In
this context, the calculated coefficients were compared to
their standard deviations to test whether they are significantly
different from 0 by estimating the probability of nullity b.
In transition flow, the coefficient a1 shows a probability of
0.02. In this case, the Reynolds number effect cannot be
neglected. In skimming regime, the coefficient a4 and effect of

Aeration efficiency correlation

The coefficients A, a1, a2, a3 and a4 were determined by a

multi-linear regression using least square method. 193
collected data and 205 experiments realized on our pilot were
used.
The interfaces between three phases (solid represented by
the cascade, liquid and gaseous) changes considerably with

Fig. 4 e Comparison between experimental and calculated

E20 with the global correlation developed for all flow
regimes.E20 [0:211$RL0:033
$n0:445 $tan a0:083
e

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w a t e r r e s e a r c h 5 5 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 9 4 e2 0 2

Table 4 e Correlation coefficients, student test.

Global model

Model with 3 flow regimes

Nappe

A
a1
a2
a3
a4

Transition

Skimming

Value

Value

Value

Value

0.211

0.033
0.445
3.091E-05
0.083

16.7751107

5.02750138
24.3891692
0.00185722
3.46394616

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.998
0.000

0.331

0.048
0.687
0.169
0.234

14.394007

9.46332575
29.695529
9.29440977
9.92339927

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000

0.403

0.042
0.670
0.297
0.211

3.007

2.420
11.308
3.861
2.623

0.004
0.020
0.000
0.000
0.012

0.14 10
3
0.536

0.348

1.186
0.031

5.247
4.390

5.764

9.042
0.397

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.692

cascade slope a can be neglected since the nullity probability

is b 0.692. This coefficient characterizes the weight of the
steps dimensions on the aeration efficiency. This ratio (h/l) has
not much impact on the aeration since steps corners are
fulfilled with water in skimming flow.
Otherwise, turbulence has more impact on aeration in
skimming regime: a1 reach maximum value in this regime.
Between nappe and transition regimes, there are a few
changes of turbulence effects, the number of steps and the
cascade slope a. In skimming flow, it was observed the higher
hc the higher water volume over the cascade steps and the less
interfacial area. Thus, aeration decreases when hc increases.
For a given total cascade height H, in skimming flow, aeration
is less efficient with increasing number of steps unlike the
cases of nappe and transition flows.
Figs. 5e7 illustrate the agreement between the calculated
values and the experimental efficiencies E20 for nappe, transition and skimming flows. These correlations could be
applied for wide range of geometrical and hydrodynamic
parameters.
In order to analyze the effect of each dimensionless
number, aeration efficiency response to the unique variation
of each number is represented in supplementary informations (Figures S1 to S5). Therefore, it will be possible to
see different flow regimes in the same figure. In skimming
flow, aeration efficiency decreases when Reynolds number,
hc/H and steps number increase. In these flow conditions, E20

is insensible to chute slope variation but remains at the

higher level. In nappe and transition flow, aeration efficiency
increases with increasing all dimensionless numbers. The
chute slope a effect on aeration efficiency illustration was
separated (Figures S2 and S3 in supplementary data) because
it was impossible to fix all the parameters (except a) simultaneously for the three flow regimes. It is difficult to separate
Re and (hc/H) effects since they both depends on water
flowrate. In nappe flow, increasing Re and (hc/H) induces an
improvement in aeration efficiency unlike skimming flow.
Despite the Reynolds number exponent reaches maximum
value for skimming flow, aeration efficiency decreases when
this number increases. This can be explained by the preponderant effect of (hc/H) on Reynolds number. Slightly over
estimation of aeration efficiency can be noticed on Fig. 7 for
E20 over 0.7 and under estimation for E20 under 0.3. Nevertheless, aeration efficiency estimation was found accurate
enough.

Fig. 5 e Comparison between experimental and calculated

E20 with correlation developed in this paper for the nappe
flow.E20 [0:331$RL0:048
$n0:687 $hc =H0:169 $tan a0:234
e

Fig. 6 e Comparison between experimental and calculated

E20 with correlation developed in this paper for the transition
$n0:670 $hc =H0:297 $tan a0:211
flow.E20 [0:403$RL0:042
e

4.4.

Correlations comparison

Fig. 8 shows a good agreement between aeration efficiency

values calculated by the relation proposed in this study (with
the 3 different regimes) and the experimental values with a
relative error about 16.5%.
The correlation of Baylar et al. (2006) is not applicable to the
data from Toombes and Chanson (2005), the values of Li

w a t e r r e s e a r c h 5 5 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 9 4 e2 0 2

201

parameters and overcome the scale effects since local aeration prediction is not calculated for each step.

4.5.

Aeration on non uniform steps cascade

In order to restore ecological properties of some watercourses,

stepped cascade could be constructed for oxygenation
improvement. Cascade can be composed of steps at different
height/length. In this case, aeration efficiency can be estimated by the following relation (Gameson, 1957):
Ecascade 1
1
E1 $1
E2 .1
EN

Fig. 7 e Comparison between experimental and calculated

E20 with correlation developed in this paper for skimming
$nL0:348 $hc =HL1:186
flow.E20 [1:4 $10L4 $R0:536
e

where Ei (i {1, n}) are the aeration efficiency of blocks with

uniform h and l. By applying the correlation obtained on these
blocks, the total aeration obtained on the stepped cascade can
be estimated as:
Ecascade 1

5.
calculated for the stepped cascade of Toombes and Chanson
leads to negative values. Baylar et al. (2010) correlation is only
applicable with one step.
Highly turbulent flows on stepped cascade are difficult to
model at the local scale because the behavior varied from the
upper step to the lower one. Moreover, the relative invariance
of bubble size, and scale effects are difficult to predict due to
the great number of coupling parameters. One of the solutions
would be to simulate in detail the interface using Volume Of
Fluid simulation. This is time consuming and the solution for
one configuration does not allow an easy scale-up or scaledown and it requires simulating each new configuration.
This is why, as explained in paragraph 4.1, we developed a
global correlation based on aeration efficiency prediction
regardless to multiphase flow details. It provides a reasonable
accuracy of the global aeration prediction for a large range of

(19)

a2
a3
a4 

N

Y
hi
hci
hi
$
$
1
A$Raei1 $
H
H
li
i
i
i1

(20)

Conclusion

A model of aeration efficiency in stepped cascades with horizontal steps was elaborated by using dimensional analysis
and 398 experimental data. These data have been taken from
the literature but also measured on an experimental set-up
design. The obtained correlation is composed of five dimensionless numbers that characterized the aeration behavior in
stepped cascades. It allows predicting the experimental data
issued from a wide range of operating conditions with a
satisfactory average relative error of 16.5%. Three hydrodynamic regimes were found on stepped cascades: nappe,
transition and Skimming regimes. The effect of the studied
parameters on the aeration strongly differs according to the
flow regime. Also, three different sets of coefficients were
optimized for each flow regime in order to better consider the
physic of the aeration prediction. This correlation gives a
satisfactory estimation of oxygen transfer in existing cascades
and could be used to design new cascades to improve
oxygenation and therefore self-purification processes. Since
cascades provide aeration without operating cost, the proposed correlation could be also useful to design cascades
downstream WWTPs to eliminate residual pollution or even in
wetlands.

Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the French National Research
Agency (EPEC ANR-10-ECOT-007-01). Authors would like to
thank the mechanical workshop of the LRGP for construction
and installation of the laboratory pilot.

Fig. 8 e Comparison between experimental and calculated

E20 with the 3 correlations taking into account the 3
different flow regimes developed in this paper.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data related to this article can be found at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2014.02.022.

202

w a t e r r e s e a r c h 5 5 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 9 4 e2 0 2

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