December 13, 2021 -- Colorado Springs, CO, USA -- Applied Flow Technology (AFT) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Platinum Pipe Award Contest. This annual contest recognizing excellence in piping and ducting system modeling using AFT software. The Platinum Pipe Award (PPA) entries allow AFT to visualize how our software products are used in industries around the world. They help us demonstrate the software and how it can be applied in diverse situations and piping systems.

The AFT Platinum Pipe Award contest accepts entries each year until October 31. Engineers are welcome to provide a high-level overview of their projects, while leaving out any proprietary information such as project names, locations, and client details. AFT is interested in model details only as they pertain to how the engineer utilized AFT software to determine solutions for optimal design, safety, and efficiency.

Most Interesting Model

Winner: Protton Synergy Private Limited  - Samarth Pawar, Kalpesh Birla, & Gaurav Bhende

Honorable Mention: L&T Technology Services, Vadodara, India, Sumit Sayankar

Test/Data Correlation

Winner: Ingenero Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. - Swapnil Paingankar & Manish Bohara 

Operational Benefits

Winner: Wood PLC - Chris Bibby 

Most Interesting Model Winner: Samarth Pawar, Kalpesh Birla, & Gaurav Bhende, Protton Synergy Private Limited, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

AFT Impulse™ Confirms Surge Safety after Importing 1000+ Pipe Data Center HVAC Systems

As the demand for internet continues to grow, so too does the demand for data centers and their supporting systems. As larger data centers are built, their chilled water networks must meet larger demands, leading to more complex systems of larger flowrates with potential for catastrophic surge damage due to transient events.

The team at Protton Synergy considered the effects of valve closures, pump trips and pump restarts on various data center systems to ensure the resulting pressure and forces were within acceptable limits. After importing their 1000+ pipe data center model from Navisworks and using AFT’s provided handbook fittings losses, the team could build a calibrated model ready for transient analysis. Ultimately the system was proven safe, reasonably within ASME B31.3’s guidelines for maximum pressures and similarly avoided low-pressure vacuum and cavitation conditions.

Test/Data Correlation Winner: Swapnil Paingankar & Manish Bohara, Ingenero Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., Thane, Maharashtra, India

AFT Fathom™ Reveals Faulty Equipment in Hot Oil Network Energy Optimization Study

AFT Fathom helped engineers at Ingenero Technologies identify issues that plant data alone couldn’t reveal, which saved energy by eliminating unwanted resistance. A calibrated model allowed engineers to explore alternative proposals to meet the client’s design requirements while minimizing cost. AFT Fathom helped the team evaluate diverse scenarios to enhance flow with minimal hardware changes.

Operational Benefits Winner: Chris Bibby, WOOD, PLC, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

AFT Impulse™ Study Reveals Flaws in Injection System Emergency Protection Methods

AFT Impulse assisted in the assessment of a water injection system in an offshore production platform expansion. A 4-pump system was flagged as an area of concern due to the long flowlines and high operating pressure of the injection system (more than 10,000 psi / 690 bar). Bibby performed a transient analysis in AFT Impulse for pump start-up, controlled shutdown, emergency shutdown, and valve failure scenarios to determine if pressures or forces exceeded acceptable limits.

Bibby cited many of AFT’s visualization tools to understand the cause-and-effect of transient events and thereby strategies for mitigation. Visualization tools made communicating the results to owners and providing supporting evidence for suggestions clear across their many analysis cases. Bibby could model the control logic and response of the system with AFT’s Event Manager and the implications of vapor formation and collapse on pressure following the check valve slam. AFT Impulse was instrumental in mitigating these failure risks and ensuring protective measures didn’t exacerbate an emergency.

Most Interesting Model Honorable Mention: Sumit Sayankar, L&T Technology Services, Vadodara, India

AFT Arrow™ Ensures Proper Fan Sizing in Nitrogen Closed Loop

Sumit Sayankar, Senior Engineer with L&T Technology Services, was tasked with optimizing the fan hydraulics of a nitrogen closed loop in the detailed engineering phase. The nitrogen loop is used to dry a slurry mixture, picking up process vapors and traces of solids in the process. These solids are removed via a bag filter before the fluid is cooled to condense out some components. The remaining stream is preheated before returning to the fan to recirculate. The fan to drive this loop had to meet supply pressure requirements under a variety of conditions, considering fan speed, auxiliary line draws, and the impact of the process fluid itself during evaluation. Sayankar entrusted AFT Arrow to model the loop and confirm operation across the range of conditions at the same time, and used AFT tools to visualize and identify areas of large loss and more easily communicate finding with the client.