This past summer I worked as a co-op in the environmental department at a Georgia-Pacific paper mill. During my time spent working there I acquired a small knowledge of fluid mechanics. After beginning my fluid mechanics course I became aware of some important engineering principles that I had not noticed before. At the facility, we operated a rigid tank and pumping system that pumped bacterial nutrient into wastewater treatment ponds. One task that I was responsible for was determining the daily flowrate of nutrient into the treatment ponds. This was a difficult task because the flowrate never corresponded to the setting on the pump. After taking this course I realized that some of the flow was due to the level of nutrient stored in the tank (Torricelli Relationship - simplified Bernoulli's equation) . A high fluid level in the tank would cause a higher pressure and thus increase the flowrate. So, the flowrate was not just a function of the pump setting but solely a function of the fluid level.
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