AFT Blog
Tip: If you know how to use AFT Fathom, then you are over the learning curve by about 90% when it comes to knowing how to use AFT Arrow, and about 80% of how to use AFT Impulse. One of the best advantages to AFT software tools is they offer a full solution for any single-phase pipe flow analysis calculations. Whether you are dealing with liqui...
In recent years, engineering efforts have been increasingly focused on analyzing and preventing detrimental pulsations in pipelines. One major source of these pulsations is caused by acoustical resonance. Undesirable acoustical resonance happens when pressure pulses (the source of which is often a positive displacement pump) excite the system's nat...
Have you ever wanted to show the three-dimensional nature of your piping system in AFT applications? Maybe you are building a model from an isometric reference drawing. Or maybe you are incorporating your model into a report and want to represent the x, y, AND z axes.
Whatever the reason may be, the great news is that AFT Fathom 10 includes a new Isometric Pipe Drawing Mode!
AFT Applications have long had several options for the export of output data. Data can be directly copied and pasted into other Window's applications, and entire sections of the output can be exported to preformatted, delimited, or Excel formats. However, these options can be inflexible or require significant overhead. AFT Fathom 10 is introducing ...
The pistons, or diaphragm of a reciprocating (positive displacement) pump causes a cyclical variation, typically in some sinusoidal form, of both flow in pressure in a piping system. The magnitude varies, depending on the type and design of the pump. What is acceleration head? Acceleration head is the energy required to change the velocity of the liquid in the system from an at rest, or zero condition, to some non-zero value. To help us understand acceleration head a little more clearly, you could compare it to a race car. In a drag race, the race car will accelerate to some maximum velocity,...
What is BEP & why is it important? Every pump has an ideal range of operation where the pump is most efficient. The peak of the efficiency curve is known as the best efficiency point (BEP). Determining how far your pump is operating from its BEP is critical to increasing pump reliability and efficiency as well as meeting API 610 recommendations. AFT Fathom models pump curves with efficiency data and will determine the margin between the simulated operation of the pump and the actual best efficiency point. Our friends at Empowering Pumps shared an article titled, "Some Effects of Operating Pumps Away from Best Efficiency Point" which...
What comes to mind when you hear the expression “planning for failure”? For some, it carries the negative connotation that failure is the direct result of a design – intentionally or otherwise. Benjamin Franklin said; “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” and I believe he would agree that any good plan addresses potential failures. In fact, not "planning for failure" as an element of a system is essentially failing to plan and therefore inviting unexpected and unmitigated failures. Life Cycle Cost One of the many reasons to avoid failure when possible is to reduce cost. When a...