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.
There is a similar story behind the naming of AFT Fathom™ and I told that story several months ago in my post entitled Where did the Name Fathom Come From? The story behind the Arrow name is rooted in the beginnings of Applied Flow Technology as a company. So let's go back to 1995.AFT Fathom was released in early 1994. While interest was immediate
Nuclear power has had a bumpy history. In recent years nuclear power has come to be viewed by some as a clean source of power with virtually no CO2 emissions. Different countries view nuclear power in different ways. France obtains over 75% of it's electricity from nuclear power. China is building many new nuclear power plants. New nuclear reactor
Let's start with my favorite my new feature. Well, actually it is a collection of new features - all related to graphing. New Graphing Features First, AFT Arrow now has the ability to display multiple graphs simultaneously. For example, see screen show below. Second, AFT Arrow can remember all the graphs in a new Graph List Manager. This replaces
According to science journal Nature, "Using the world's most powerful assembly of lasers, a team of researchers say they have, for the first time, extracted more energy from controlled nuclear fusion than was absorbed by the fuel to trigger it — crossing an important symbolic threshold on the long path toward exploiting this virtually boundless so
Today it is no longer necessary to take short cuts. But all too often we see engineers doing just that. AFT Arrow is AFT's gas flow simulation software and it will be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year. Just last week I had a conversation with an AFT Arrow user from a well known engineering firm who was required by a client to use gas mode
AFT Arrow solves all of the fundamental controlling equations governing gas dynamics. For more information about which fundamental thermodynamic equations are solved in AFT Arrow, here is an excellent article that discusses gas flow calculations in detail. The "stack effect" is simply one aspect of these equations, and is accounted for by th
In AFT Arrow, there are three types of fluids that can be modeled: AFT Standard, ASME Steam, and Chempak. The focus of this article will be on how to use the Chempak Database with AFT Arrow in order to perform dynamic mixing calculations. But first, I would like to briefly introduce each of the three types of fluids that can be mo
Eventually I gave up looking for published methods and set it aside to focus on AFT Fathom 2.0 - which was released in early 1995. I then spent the summer of 1995 focused on developing my own methods for compressible flow. I remember at one point spending six straight weeks reviewing compressible flow textbooks and papers and filling up pads of pa
AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow both have the powerful ability to model heat transfer in pipes and heat exchangers, allowing you to represent these critical features of temperature-sensitive systems in your hydraulic model. However, without being able to see the affect heat transfer has on an entire system these features would be of limited usefulness. On
As the original developer of AFT Arrow, I consider it as one of my babies. This month it is all grown up and now 25 years old. Back in March we came out with the latest new version AFT Arrow 8 – just as the COVID-19 crisis was emerging.Those who have taken an AFT Arrow seminar which I have taught (at least fifty classes and counting!) have likely h
Learn how to use AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow to help calculate the Likelihood of Failure (LOF) for Flow Induced Vibration (FIV), Acoustic Induced Vibration (AIV), and Flow Induced Pulsation (FIP) in accordance with Energy Institute Guidelines to avoid vibration induced fatigue failure. Introduction to Vibration Induced Fatigue and Failure Repeat
We recently discussed the new features coming out in AFT Fathom 13 and AFT Impulse 10. Now let's talk about the compressible gas and steam side of the product launches. You may be more familiar with AFT Fathom, as it is our flagship incompressible steady state analysis product. AFT Arrow is its counterpart for compressible steady sta
As gases flow through pressure reducing devices, the pressure drops and the gas expands, experiencing irreversible energy losses. At these locations, the gas undergoes turbulent mixing and deflects off the pipe walls at high velocities. If the flow is sonically choked due to the restricting device, the flow must also pass through a standing shockwa
There are three geometric situations which can lead to sonic choking and the Triple Choke example discussed here demonstrates each of the three. This technical paper I wrote explains the three sonic choking geometries in more detail. One interesting back story to this example is that soon after we put it together in 1996 a company called inquiring
What is GSC? GSC stands for Goal Seek and Control and is an add-on module for both AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow that automates the search for input parameters to achieve desired output. In other words, it allows the user to define a set of model input variables that are changed until a set of output goals are reached. The first step toward calibrating
The growing emphasis on sustainable business practices and environmental responsibility has impacted AFT software in several areas. In recent years we have added built-in capabilities to AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow to calculate energy usage and to estimate the cost to operate rotating equipment. This is available on the Analysis menu in the “Cost Sett
In early October, I conducted a 5-day training seminar in Lima, Peru. There were seven different companies represented from Peru and Chile. It is always interesting to see the variety of applications for AFT software and Peru was no exception where many of the engineers are involved in mining operations. Peru is a leading producer of copper, gold,
AFT Arrow can be used to model various types of choking such as restriction choking, endpoint choking, and expansion choking. A useful parameter in AFT Arrow’s output is the “Sonic Flow Area” and this is the flow area in which sonic choking will occur. Comparing the sonic flow area to the actual flow area can help determine the margin b
Many of our products have had no price increases for five or even ten years. Further, we will be bundling modules into AFT Fathom 8 and AFT Arrow 5 which in the past were offered at extra cost. US customers can see the new pricing. International customers should contact their distributors for new pricing information. Second and additional licenses
AFT Arrow can be used to model various types of choking such as restriction choking, endpoint choking, and expansion choking. A useful parameter in AFT Arrow’s output is the “Sonic Flow Area” and this is the flow area in which sonic choking will occur. Comparing the sonic flow area to the actual flow area can help determine the margin between not c
What does all of this mean for the future? The new, more modern look and feel of AFT Fathom 8 is based on a new underlying architecture. We will be working hard to move all of our other products to this architecture as quickly as possible. Our best guess is that AFT Impulse 5 will be available in first quarter of 2013 and AFT Arrow 5 will be avail
DuPont The first story talks about how AFT Fathom helped DuPont solve a serious operational problem in three newly designed slurry systems. I co-authored a technical paper along with DuPont's Dan Wood to describe this to industry. AFT Impulse Video NASA The second story is about how AFT Impulse has been used by engineers at NASA's Kennedy Sp
Jeff and I worked together at General Dynamics Space Systems Division in San Diego, California in the late 1980's and early 1990's. I worked there from 1986-1992 on cryogenic rockets on what came to be known as the Atlas I, Atlas II, Atlas IIA and Atlas IIAS. These Atlas rockets had an Atlas booster rocket which was fueled by room temperature RP-1
First is because 20 years in business means that AFT software is proven.Second is because of the prizes we are giving away this year. Twenty of them no less!Come along with me while I elaborate on what AFT has achieved in the last 20 years. And explain more about the two P's.A Vision for the VisualThe last 20 years has been a long and exciting jou
You have just finished designing your system and built a model of your system in AFT Fathom and have convinced your team and the client that the system will achieve all the desired pressures, flow rates, and temperatures. The next big question is, “How much will this system cost?” With AFT Fathom, you have the ability to answer that question in g
With the release of AFT Fathom 8 and AFT Impulse 5, there is an incredibly useful new feature available on the Workspace called the "Quick Access Panel". This feature allows you to quickly and easily work with several useful features of the software in one area such as the Scenario Manager, Pipe and Junction Inspection, Workspace Overview Map
Congratulations to all the lucky winners! AFT has a hard earned reputation for excellence in our products and our technical support. For the next 20 years we plan to build on that reputation. Here are some things to keep an eye out for from AFT this year: The release of AFT Fathom 9 with a host of new features The release of AFT Impulse 6 with a
Then, do the same thing for the other heat exchanger (by linking back to the previous heat exchanger). Finally, the model can run and this will allow simulation of two sides of one heat exchanger and their associated flow loops in a single model file!! Figure 7 shows that the heat transfer FROM the hot oil shell side of the heat excha
When dealing with a compressible gas system, heat transfer and thermal effects are very important to account for. When a gas is flowing down a pipeline, it will cool down as the gas expands due to the frictional pressure drop. Many would say that adiabatic or isothermal conditions will bracket the potential flow rates that are possible
But you can find extra time in other ways that do not depend an calendar adjustments. That time is found by accomplishing your assigned engineering tasks in less time. And that is where AFT software can and does help engineering companies in 70+ countries around the world. Below is a list of the top five ways AFT software saves engineers time: Top
Two summers ago I bought a new home in the Colorado Spring area. It has an air conditioning unit that only distributes air to the upstairs. Upstairs has only bedrooms and a bathroom. Colorado Springs is a beautiful city that sits at the base of the world famous Pikes Peak. The local elevation of the city is 6000 ft (1800 m) and my home is at 7200
Perhaps a good place to start is this video I highly recommend watching - "Guys build amazing 7-mile-long model of the solar system, to scale". As I watched the video it brought back vivid memories of grade school for me. My amazing teachers had the wonderful idea to setup a solar system on the playground where kids held a picture of each planet a
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
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 A
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
Often times when building larger network models, you may not be sure what the direction of the flow will be and running the model is the only way to determine the flow direction. In the below AFT Arrow model it might be hard to determine what way the flow convention is in some of the loops. After running this model there are cautions stating that f
As we started to test the new graphing features we were concerned that users would struggle to access these features. So we came up with an idea that turned into the Graph Guide. What is the Graph Guide, you ask? Well, in simple terms the Graph Guide is an interactive, hierarchical guide built into the Graph Results window which assists the user
The first and most obvious way that AFT software makes the world safer is that our software products help engineers test their designs and operations on their computers where the impact of failure is eliminated. While this is invaluable, it is a bit abstract. So let's get more specific and highlight some applications where safety is impacted. RELI
The primary way to view results when using Impulse is through graphical data. With the release of AFT Impulse 6, the power of the graphing features has been greatly increased. With this enhanced capability comes additional complexity. It is a kin to the power and complexity of in-dash radio consoles in modern cars compared to the old stereo in my o
Using graphs that are stacked on top of each other is a great way to see the variation of several parameters at once and how one interacts with the others. There are several ways to create stacked graphs using the new graphing features in AFT applications, which I will cover here. I am going to start with the AFT Impulse model, ‘Pump Startup With E
Previously, we talked about the Graph Guide and how to create Stacked Graphs. Another way to see the interactions between parameters is to show them on one graph with dual Y-axes and a common X-axis scale. I am going to again start with the AFT Impulse model, ‘Pump Startup With Event Transient.imp’, which is installed in the Examples folder, and us
Previously, we talked about the Graph Guide and how to create Stacked Graphs and Dual-Y graphs. With AFT Impulse and with AFT Fathom’s XTS module, a great way to see how parameters change over time is through animated graphs. For the purpose of continuity, I am going to again start with the AFT Impulse model, ‘Pump Startup With Event Transient.imp’
Previously, we talked about the Graph Guide, creating Stacked graphs and Dual-Y graphs, and visualizing the results using Animated graphs. This final installment will focus on the various ways to format graphs so they are exactly how you want them to look. In general, there are several ways to set the formatting for the various parts and regions of
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th American President two days ago on Friday, January 20th. I spent Friday and the rest of this weekend pondering this and what it might mean for those who work in technology. What actually happens under President Trump is anyone's guess at this point. Leaving aside (to the political commentators) all of the wac
There are many (six!) ways to define a pump transient event in AFT Impulse. This gives you great flexibility in creating a model that behaves the way you want it to. One thing true for all pumps is that they must be started at least once. Pump startups often cause significant transient effects on the system so you may wish to model this with AFT Im
Especially in Irma’s case, there was considerable discussion of the computer modeling used to predict the path and strength of the hurricane. As I have worked in computer modeling for most of my 30+ year career, this piqued my interest and I decided to educate myself a little more on the topic as it relates to hurricanes. The first resource I purs
The original Star Trek was on television when I was in kindergarten. I was definitely a fan of the original series but I never had time to keep up with the following television series. I have seen all the Star Trek movies going back almost 40 years now. So which is better? Obviously this is a highly subjective question. Let’s put that aside for th
How did I end up getting assigned this project? Well, I had a few things going for me at that stage of my career. Firstly was that my company division was on a massive hiring spree. Since I had been hired three years earlier my division had doubled in size. Fortuitously for me, that meant I was now in the upper 50% of seniority. Secondly, I had ju
What is BEP & why is it important? Every pump has an ideal range of operation where the pump is most efficient. The peak of the efficiency curve is known as the best efficiency point (BEP). Determining how far your pump is operating from its BEP is critical to increasing pump reliability and efficiency as well as meeting API 610 recommendations
In that we used Idelchik at both of my first two jobs, when I started AFT in 1993 I assumed that everyone knew about and used Idelchik. I found out that was not the case. If you have not heard of Idelchik's handbook, it is voluminous at 861 pages. It has by far the best information available on how to calculate pressure losses in tees and wyes. An