January 07, 2003
AFT IntelliFlow® Technology Featured in Pumps & Systems Magazine
With pumping systems accouting for about 20% of the world's energy usage, a great potential for cost and energy savings exists within such systems. Unfortunately, pumping system design engineers work in an environment where budget and schedule constraints limit their ability to optimize their systems using traditional methods. "Optimizing Pumping Systems To Minimize First Or Life-Cycle Cost", featured in the October 2002 issue of Pumps & Systems magazine, describes the new technology of IntelliFlow® embodied in AFT Mercury that now allows the systems engineer to truly optimize the sizing of their systems' piping and components resulting in huge savings potentials. Jointly authored by Trey Walters of AFT and Judy Hodgson of Dupont, the article also presents several real world examples where life cycle cost savings of up to 70% were achieved. The Pumps & Systems article was derived from "Optimizing Pumping Systems to Minimize First or Life-Cycle Cost", presented at the 19th International Pump Users Symposium.
What Our Customers Are Saying
E/PRO Engineering & Environmental Consulting, who provides engineering and consulting services on a widevariety of industrial systems, has been utilizing AFT Impulse to model a hydro-electric station in New York.The 3-unit station is supplied from a headpont through a 20' (yes, feet) diameter tunnel. When a unit trips, the supply gate of the tripped hydro-turbine closes within a few seconds causing a significant surge effect on the running units. Wanting to both control maximum surge pressures and 'tune' the system response to limit the rate of pressure change to a range the speed governors on the operating turbines could handle, E/PRO's Ray Giglio used AFT Impulse to model the system and size a differential surge tank to meet the design goals.
Ray had taken advantage of AFT's technical support during the development of this sophisticated transient model development and had this to say of the experience; " Again, thank you for your prompt reply. Such help is essential when learning new software, and I really appreciate the support we're getting from AFT."
Quickly Find Undefined Objects in a Large Model
AFT software identifies which pipes and junctions lack complete input information by displaying the tag of undefined objects in red (this function may be toggled on and off by clicking the 'Object Status' button on the toolbar - the one on the far right that looks like a floodlamp). At normal zoom factors this makes it apparent which objects are undefined. When you zoom out to view a large system, however, it can be difficult to see which object tags are red. This is where the Find window's 'Show Undefined' function comes in handy.
Open the Find window either from the View menu of by pressing CTL+F. Under 'Search', check the 'Show Undefined' option. Now, the Pipes and Junctions list will be filtered to show only those objects lacking complete input definition. Select the desired object by clicking on it in the list so it's highlighted, then click the 'Find' button. The Workspace will pan to bring the object into view and select it. To open the object's Specification window, simply press Enter.
Resources to Validate AFT Software
Users regularly contact us asking for information to assist them in validating AFT software. The formality of the validation requirement ranges from customer's self imposed internal requirements to rigorous validation as required for work in the nuclear industry.
Fortunately, AFT provides extensive reference material for validation and, what's more, you probably already have it since it's automatically installed when you install AFT Arrow, AFT Fathom, AFT Impulse or AFT Mercury. Under the main application folder you'll find the Verification folder, containing models developed from published references. The source of the reference problem is displayed in the General section of the Output window with further details on the reference source provided in the 'Reference Information' box of the General tab in Output Control.
Significant additional information is provided within the 'Verify.hlp' file in the Verification folder. To open the help file, simply browse to it in Windows Explorer and double click the file name. This help file provides a description of the verification methodology, a comprehensive list of the references used and, for each verfication model, a comparison of results and discussion of why there are variances when applicable.