AFT Blog
Two years ago this month I wrote this blog article: "Should Engineers Always Perform Waterhammer Analysis of New Pipe Systems?". This was a popular blog. It was written from the fluid dynamic engineer's perspective.
Last month AFT concluded its 20th year as a world leading provider of fluid flow simulation software products. A year ago I wrote about AFT's 20th anniversary and the prizes we would be awarding.
Previously, I wrote an article that discussed how to account for density differences between a pump manufacturer's test fluid and a system fluid for pumps as well as the importance, https://www.aft.com/blog/entry/2014/12/02/reference-densities-for-pump-operation. Both AFT Fathom and AFT Impulse can take into account these density differences very easily, thus, reducing the efforts for the user. But what about viscosity corrections? Is it important to take this into account as well? How is this accomplished? Does it really make a difference? If the system fluid you are modeling has a HIGHER VISCOSITY (more resistant to flow) than the fluid the pump was tested with,...
You have just received a pump curve from a manufacturer to use in modeling your piping system. However, the pump manufacturer only tested their pump with water while your system fluid has a density that is different than water. These differences need to be accounted for with your flow model as well. This may sound like a bit of a daunting task up front. But there is good news! In AFT Fathom 8 and AFT Impulse 5, there are two very helpful features that will allow you to easily account for these differences with no trouble at all! The pressure rise...
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...
Within the world of pumping system specialists there is a wide range of areas of domain expertise. I was reminded of this earlier this month while attending the AFT Calgary User Group meeting sponsored by AFT's Canadian channel partner. One of the invited speakers, Jordan Grose of Beta Machinery, used several areas of domain expertise to solve a waterhammer problem in the field. I will discuss more about Mr. Grose's presentation later in this article.
Several generations of engineers ago engineers realized that performing calculations on gas flow is a lot more difficult than for liquids. As a result, the bulk of what is gas flow engineering history has revolved around how to treat gases as liquids. Another large portion of history is how to simplify gas flow equations down to simple isothermal relationships. In other words, the majority of gas flow engineering historically is about how to take short cuts with gas flow calculations.