4.8.5 Drop Structures Itis desirable to keep all but very small quantities of air from being carried through the outfall. Air would impede the flow of effluent, and might cause unsightly bubble boils when released through the outlet. Sometimes the treatment plant discharging through the outfall ison a cliff or bluff, or there may be a high overland force main between the treatment plant and the outfall. In either case, there is potential for high-velocity flow in a partially full pipe to go through a hydraulic jump in the pipe and entrain large quantities of air into full- pipe flow in the outfall (3) This will reduce the outfall’s hydraulic capacity, may introduce flow unsteadiness (e.g. a periodic burping), and create unsighily bubbling at the surface above the discharge (9). There are three design approaches to limit the entrainment of air into the outfall: 1. Allow the hydraulic jump or waterfall to occur, but provide a stilling section downstream (o allow the entrained air bubbles to rise to the crown of the section for venting before the flow proceeds into the outiall pipe; or 2. Provide a vortex drop structure in which the water swirls in a helix as it falls, in which the water is centrifuged to the walls and air is collected at the core of the shaft, and purged up the shaft counter to the water flow direction, or 3. Provideapressure-reducing valve in the line at the bottom of the descent, at or below sea level. ‘The second and third approaches have been used successfully on very large ‘outfall systems (3); but the first approach, with good design, will probably be adequate for most small outfall systems. The rise velocity of bubbles larger than a millimeter in diameter is 0.1 m/sec or greater (9). ‘The stilling section following a section where air entrainment occurs in a jump or cascade should have a length: V,_ m/s L= SP RIS x flow depth (438) in which V is the flow velocity in the section. This will allow any bubble larger than a millimeter to rise from the invert to the water surface and escape, before being swept out of the stilling section. Obviously, the stilling section should be designed with appropriate crown venting.