Kinetics of Chlorine Decay in Water Distribution Systems

A combined first and second-order model, which includes bulk decay and wall decay, was developed to describe chlorine decay in water distribution systems. In the model the bulk decay has complex relationships with total organic carbon (TOC), the initial chlorine concentration and the temperature. Except for the initial stages they can be simplified into a linear increase with TOC, a linear decrease with initial chlorine concentration and an exponential relationship with the temperature. The model also explains why chlorine decays rapidly in the initial stages. The parameters of model are determined by deriving the best fitness with experimental data. And the accuracy of model has been verified by using the experimental data and the monitoring data in a distribution system.