Feasibility of Bubble Plume Destratification of Central Lake Erie

摘要

The central basin of Lake Erie has chronic hypoxia that is exacerbated by strong seasonal temperature stratification near the lake bed. A computational study was conducted to determine the feasibility of mechanically mixing the water column by using a bubble plume system to reduce stratification, thus facilitating vertical transport of oxygen. The most efficient design delivered an air flow rate of 0.4-0.5 m~3 s~(-1) through 40-50 non-interacting plumes, which only mix the watercolutnn during the late summer hypoxic events. The optimal efficiency was computed using a new metric, which neglects changes in stratification resulting from meteorologically induced mixing, relative to those from artificial mixing.