AFT Blog

Welcome to the Applied Flow Technology Blog where you will find the latest news and training on how to use AFT Fathom, AFT Arrow, AFT Impulse, AFT xStream and other AFT software products.

Calculating Flow Through an Orifice Using ASME MFC-3M-1989 and Irrecoverable Pressure Drop Equations

Recently, a customer calculated the mass flow rate of a fluid through an orifice using both the ASME standard MFC-3M-1989 and AFT Arrow. He was puzzled when this mass flow rate calculation differed by approximately 100 lbm/hr between the two methods, so he reached out to AFT for help in determining the reason for the discrepancy. The answer for the difference in flow rates on a basic level is that these two calculations are, fundamentally, not the same thing; ASME correlates differential pressure at pressure taps for purposes of flow measurement, while AFT Fathom and Arrow calculate the irrecoverable pressure drop...

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Viewing Output Across Multiple Scenarios

AFT Arrow 4.0 and AFT Fathom 7.0 offer the ability to view text output across multiple scenarios simultaneously, greatly facilitating seeing the differences in results between scenarios. To view multiple scenario output, open Output Control either from the Analysis menu or, when the Output window is active, by clicking the toolbar button, and then selecting the Multi-Scenario tab. Under Display Type select Selected Scenarios and click the Select Scenarios button to open the Select Scenarios window. Select the scenarios you want to see output for and click OK to return to Output Control where the selected scenarios will now appear in...

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Using Groups

Groups of pipes and junction can be named for later recall. This is done using the Group Tools on the Edit menu. Groups may have subgroups, and pipes and junctions may be members of multiple groups. To create a group select the pipes and junctions you want in the group, then select Edit/Groups...Create. Specify a name for the group, click OK and the Group Manager will be displayed showing the pipes and junctions in the group. Group Manager can also be used to add or remove pipes and junctions from an existing group, rename a group or delete a group. After...

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Modeling a submerged pump in AFT Impulse

In AFT Impulse you can directly model a submerged pump. First, you will define your pump data exactly as you would normally, however you will only draw the discharge piping and not a suction piping. After doing this, you will check the box “Submerged Pump” at the bottom of the Pump Specifications Window. You now have an additional required input field. The “Suction Pressure” can be entered as a Head (HGL) or a Pressure. When entered as a Head (HGL) value, this value is the actual liquid elevation in the supply reservoir. When entered as a pressure, this is the actual...

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Using Three Way Valves in AFT Fathom

AFT Fathom provides a Three Way Valve which increases the Engineer’s capability to model system control. The Three Way Valve Properties Window shows the three connecting pipes in drop-down lists, which allows users to specify which pipe is the combined flow pipe, and which two are the split flow pipes. By entering the loss profile through each flow path, and then by selecting the actual percent open, Fathom will calculate the actual loss values for each flow path. Using the Three Way Valve in conjunction with the Goal Seek & Control module (GSC) increases the Engineer’s capability to model I&C logic...

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Automatic Renumbering

All of the pipe numbers in Fathom must be unique. When adding a pipe to a model, the new pipe number will be incremented based on the highest pipe number currently in the model. For example, you may only have 25 pipes on the workspace, but if the highest pipe number is 100, a new pipe will automatically be assigned number 101. After several iterations of deleting and adding new pipes, the numbering scheme may be reduced to chaos. AFT Fathom provides three tools to quickly and easily renumber pipes. They can be found in the Edit menu.   The Renumbering...

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Multi Scenario Output

Viewing the output from multiple scenarios in the same window can be a valuable and time saving tool! You must have output available for each of the scenarios you would like review. One way to do this is by executing a batch run: Select “Start Batch Run…” from the file menu.Click “Add Scenarios” and select which scenarios you would like to include in your multi-scenario output.Click “Start Run” and sit back while each of the scenarios is run. In order to view output from multiple scenarios in the same window, follow these steps: Browse to the Output window of one of...

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