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.

Let the Heat Flow: Modeling Heat Transfer in Pipes in AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow

Among the many talents of AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow software is the ability to model heat transfer. While a major source of heat transfer is heat exchangers, this blog will address heat transfer that occurs in pipes. First, for the basics: Just what is heat transfer? Well, heat transfer occurs when there is a temperature difference between two objects at different temperatures. As all engineers know, the common theme of physics is that matter and energy alike travel spontaneously from higher, more chaotic surroundings to calmer, lower energy situations (not unlike the stereotypical engineer), and heat transfer is no different....

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Bring the Heat: Modeling Heat Transfer in Heat Exchangers in AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow

Heat exchangers are some of the most expensive pieces of process equipment, so it is crucial that their pressure losses and heat transfer are well understood. AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow allow users to model heat exchangers within their piping systems. Pressure loss models include input K factors, resistance curves, or tube bundle information. When energy balances are being considered, users can choose between 11 heat transfer models in AFT Fathom and 12 heat transfer models in AFT Arrow to best meet their hydraulic modeling needs. While AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow can also model heat transfer in pipes, this blog...

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2000 Years of Roman Pipe Technology and 100 Years of American Pump Technology

This past week I and Jeff Olsen, AFT’s V.P. of Technology, attended the annual conference of the Hydraulic Institute. The Hydraulic Institute (HI) was founded in 1917 and is America’s premiere pump organization. At this year’s meeting HI held a centennial celebration.

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What Does “Head (HGL)” Mean for Submerged Pumps and Exit Pressures?

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...

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Know Your Pump and System Curves - Part 1

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...

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AFT Impulse 20th Anniversary: A Perspective From the Original Impulse Developer

Twenty years ago today I was working desperately on putting the finishing touches on AFT Impulse 1.0. At the time, AFT was a pioneer in every sense of the word. AFT was the first and only company developing visual, drag-and-drop pipe flow modeling software for Microsoft Windows. And AFT Impulse was set to become the world's first visual waterhammer software for Windows. We already had orders for AFT Impulse before it was complete, such was the demand!

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Getting the Perfect Picture – Graph Formatting Options

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 a graph. I will start with the model we made in the previous blog – the AFT Impulse model, ‘Pump Startup With Event Transient.imp’, which is installed in the Examples folder. Many of the formatting options are gathered together on the Formatting...

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