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.

Ben is AFT's Technical Sales Manager. He can be found teaching many of AFT's technical seminars, stopping over for lunch and learns with our customers and managing the AFT booth at trade shows. Prior to joining AFT, Ben worked as a contract engineer for Eaton Corporation and WellbornYX Corporation. He holds a Bachelor's of Science in Chemical...

Ben is AFT's Technical Sales Manager. He can be found teaching many of AFT's technical seminars, stopping over for lunch and learns with our customers and managing the AFT booth at trade shows. Prior to joining AFT, Ben worked as a contract engineer for Eaton Corporation and WellbornYX Corporation. He holds a Bachelor's of Science in Chemical Engineering (2009) from Colorado School of Mines. 

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Putting Out Fires with AFT Fathom's NFPA Calcs & GSC

If you are performing a hydraulic analysis on your fire system, chances are high that you are working hard and maybe scratching your head in order to adhere to the NFPA codes.  The good news is that you can streamline the calculations outlined in the codes with AFT Fathom! NFPA 15 is the standard for fixed water spray systems that are used in fire protection.  AFT Fathom has been able to perform all the standard hydraulic calculations for a fire protection analysis for a long time, including the usage of Hazen-Williams factors.  But now with AFT Fathom 9, you can easily...

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Using Equivalent Lengths in AFT Fathom

One of the new features in AFT Fathom 9 was the ability to model equivalent lengths instead of K factors for various types of fittings. Since AFT Fathom's existence, the standard K factor loss models have been used to quantify the pressure losses across a fitting such as an elbow, a valve, etc.  One of the reasons why the K factor method is very useful is because it is broad and applicable to a wide range of different fittings.  However, the equivalent length method is also a way that engineers will typically quantify the losses through their fittings and they will...

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Overcoming New Heights - System Priming Before Siphon Effect Can Help

The process of sizing a pump for the application of priming a piping system as well as for normal operation is slightly more involved than if the system was already primed and the pump was to be sized for a liquid full system.  For a system priming application, the intermediate elevations at high points in a piping system are relevant in regard to the pump that is used.  If a pump is not able to generate enough head in order to overcome the high intermediate elevation points in a system, then the pump will provide no benefit to the system, even...

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Databases 101 - Get to Know Them

Amongst the vast multitude of superbly efficient features within AFT Software, the customization and Database capabilities are certainly of significant importance.  If you are not familiar with how to use the Databases within our software to manage your customized information, then getting familiar should be a top priority for what you learn how to do next in our software.  Making effective use of Databases will save you and your team of AFT users incredible amounts of time! The vast amounts of data that you can customize within our software includes: Components (junctions)Fluid propertiesPipe materialsPipe insulationFittings & Losses (that get lumped into...

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What Good is a Map Without Colors?

What Good is a Map Without Colors?

Each AFT software product employs five Primary Window tabs in which you would build, define, and analyze the model of your system.  Of these, the Visual Report window is incredibly useful in that you are able to overlay your model input or output parameters directly on top of the graphical layout of the system itself.  This is an excellent feature to use when you want to provide the bottom line results to clients and colleagues at a high level (or a detailed level).  Figure 1 is an example of what the Visual Report for a particular system might look like.  As...

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Goodbye Graph Sets! Hello New Graph List Manager!!

Goodbye Graph Sets!  Hello New Graph List Manager!!

AFT software products have had powerful graphing capabilities for a very long time.  Many types of graphs can be created with AFT products such as pump vs. system curves, profile plots along a flow path, gradelines and elevation profiles, transient plots (with AFT Impulse or the AFT Fathom XTS module), slurry system curves (with AFT Fathom SSL or AFT Impulse SSL modules), and selected solutions that allow you to plot various output parameters for desired pipes. All of these graphing capabilities are incredibly important to engineers as they analyze the hydraulic behavior of their system.  The ability to customize the graphs...

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Behold The New Design Alert Manager!

One of the newest features of AFT Fathom 9 that will add a lot more efficiency to analyzing your results is the new Design Alert Manager!  In addition to the new Design Alert Manager, it is also possible to add general Design Alerts for junctions such as inlet or outlet pressure, or perhaps the pressure loss across a junction. In previous versions of our software, it would be possible to create different Design Alerts for pipes where you could specify a minimum or maximum value for a particular output parameter such as a maximum pressure limit, minimum flow rate, maximum velocity,...

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