AFT Blog
To all of the engineers reading this article, we made it! Whew! Reading a three-part series is like running a marathon. Way to go! If you are new to this series, we encourage you to read this article as well as the previous two: Part 1: Six Reasons to Use a Flow Analysis and Part 2: Flow Analysis Is Neglected. In this article are six reasons e...
We hope you enjoyed our previous article on the Top 6 Reasons Your Design Should Include Flow Analysis. But now… let's get a bit serious and talk about three main reasons why flow analysis is neglected during the design process. It could be straight neglect, or unconscious neglect. Either way we will open the conversation and provide some insi...
Hello AFT readers! It has been quite a while since I have written a blog for you all. I had a recent discussion with a user and discovered a couple pain points that may be common. We did not have any blogs on the topics yet and I figured it was time to get back in the game and write another blog for our readers! The pain points were: 1. Modeling sy...
Tip: If you know how to use AFT Fathom, then you are over the learning curve by about 90% when it comes to knowing how to use AFT Arrow, and about 80% of how to use AFT Impulse. One of the best advantages to AFT software tools is they offer a full solution for any single-phase pipe flow analysis calculations. Whether you are dealing with liqui...
In AFT Fathom and AFT Impulse, it is possible to model a submerged pump where a short and possibly frictionless suction pipe for the pump’s inlet does not need to be modeled. When modeling a submerged pump, there are two options available for specifying the system inlet boundary condition at the pump suction. As shown in Figure 1 below, the Submerged Pump’s Suction Pressure can either be specified as “Head (HGL)” or “Pressure”. Modeling a submerged pump is not the only time where the “Head (HGL)” or “Pressure” choices will arise. If an Exit Valve (i.e., a valve that discharges...
AFT Fathom can easily generate a pump and system curve for your piping system. Creating a pump and system curve for a simple system with a single flow path and no control features is an easy and typically well-understood process. However, as piping systems are quite complicated with lots of branch points, control features, and dynamic interactions, creating a useful system curve can quickly become a common source of confusion. This three-part blog series is going to help clarify concepts regarding pump and system curves to better understand them. This Part 1 blog will discuss the basics of what pump...
Have you ever finished running an AFT Impulse model and then received the following Warning message shown in Figure 1 and then wondered what it means? During a waterhammer analysis, the flowrates are constantly changing all throughout the system, therefore, the velocities and Reynold's numbers are also constantly changing. The friction factors will also be constantly changing during the transient. By default, AFT Impulse will use the friction factors that are obtained during the steady-state analysis and then use the same friction factors during the transient and they will be assumed to remain constant. Since it is possible for the flowrates...