February 1, 2021 -- Colorado Springs, CO, USA -- To optimize its cooling systems for the Nucléaire1, the engineers at Cegelec CEM (VINCI Energies) chose AFT Fathom from Applied Flow Technology. CETIM made the announcement and posted a paper written by CEGELEC-CEM about the cooling system and how they used AFT Fathom:

 Sizing and optimizing cooling networks for nuclear equipment requires the availability of suitable and efficient tools. To gain efficiency in its design projects in this field, Cegelec CEM opted for the software dedicated to the calculation of pressure drops in piping networks for incompressible fluids AFT Fathom, distributed by Cetim. After a phase of discovering the tool and the exchanges provided between the engineer and technical support, a final phase of testing, to compare Fathom's results with the tools already in place, definitely tipped the scales. "AFT / Fathom, which is easy to learn, fully meets our needs", concludes David Samson, technical manager at Cegelec CEM."

CETIM is an association created by the French government in 1965 to help companies in the French mechanical industry in general and one section of CETIM help is engineering software. AFT long-time France Channel Partner, SODECO, has worked hand-in-hand with CETIM for several years to educate engineers on the benefits of flow analysis with AFT software. 

 Read the Paper  

Article translated:

The engineer opted for the software dedicated to the calculation of pressure drops in piping networks for incompressible fluids to gain efficiency in his projects for designing cooling circuits for nuclear power.

Optimizing the sizing of a piping network in order to convey fluids according to the operating conditions required by an industrial process is far from being easy. In addition to the architecture of the piping network, it is particularly necessary to carefully select the characteristics of the pumps and control systems and to determine the operating parameters suitable for the application.

It is not enough to define the level of flow, pressure, and temperature at the input and output of the network, but also to know their values ​​at its various strategic points. For all networks, the task is complex. When it comes to ensuring the hydraulic balance of the cooling circuit for the nuclear sector, there is no room for guesswork. It is a matter for specialists, Cegelec CEM is one of them. The company has recognized expertise in this field and has internally developed software tools enabling it to design and optimize the operation of a cooling circuit. In order to standardize its engineering processes, it opted for AFT's piping network calculation and management software. "Our client directed us to this software because it is also used by other of its service providers. However, we studied other software offers that could meet our needs. After attending a demonstration of the AFT Fathom software dedicated to the calculation of pressure losses in piping networks for incompressible fluids, we worked at length with the technical support to assess its potential ", explains David Samson, technical manager at Cegelec CEM. The company then tested the software on part of the circuit being designed and compared the results with those obtained with its own calculation tools. "It turned out that the results were convergent. AFT / Fathom, whose handling is easy, fully meets our needs ", concludes the technical manager