Treatment Processes · Filter Operation
What Is Head Loss in a Filter?
As a filter catches particles, it gets harder for water to pass through. Head loss is the measure of that resistance. It tells you how loaded the filter is and how much run it has left.
Read head loss together with the filter's flow rate and water level. Head loss that climbs fast early in a run points to a heavy solids load coming from the basins or a plugged surface. A clean-bed starting value that creeps up run after run points to dirty media or mudballs, which is a backwash problem covered in Module 4. A sudden jump can be a valve moving, a rate controller problem, trapped air, or a bad instrument rather than normal loading.
Trend each filter's starting head loss, rate, turbidity, and run time. Comparing similar runs shows slow fouling or a mechanical change before an alarm goes off.
The maximum head loss is not a goal to use up. Take the filter out of service on whichever comes first: a water-quality limit, an operating limit, or your plant's schedule.
Key point: Read head loss with rate, level, turbidity, and history; the pattern tells you whether the load, the media, or the equipment changed.
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Water Treatment Part 2: Treatment Processes in Practice
This page comes from the course. It covers coagulation and jar tests, flocculation and sedimentation, filters and backwash, membranes, disinfection, water chemistry and plant residuals, one step at a time, with short knowledge checks and a certificate of completion.
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