AFT Blog

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.

Everyone - at least everyone in the USA - is talking about falling oil prices:

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...

News on the development of drones (also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs - or UUVs if underwater) is on the rise. The applications for UAV technology to support engineering activity seem endless. However, as with all new technologies, UAVs can potentially negatively interfere with pre-existing operations, laws and regulations, general accepted practice, as well as common decency.

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.

I recently had the opportunity to travel to one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world – Easter Island or Rapa Nui in the native tongue. The nearest inhabited island (of only 50 residents) is 1,289 miles (2,075 km) away. Santiago, Chile, is 2,337 miles (3,761 km) away – slightly less than the distance between New York City and Los Angeles. The history of the people who have inhabited the island for more than a thousand years is interesting, and serves as a reminder to us on several levels. The island is famous for the large statues called moai....