AFT Blog

If you have a system where there are several area changes throughout the piping, modeling every single area change and connecting pipes can become taxing and time consuming.  Also, the more pipes and junctions that are in a model, the higher the complexity. With AFT software , it is very simple to include the area change losses in the pipes themselves! As seen in the Pipe Fittings and Losses screen shot below, there are four area change types that can be used and either abrupt or conical shapes can be modeled.  The key to determining which expansion or contraction type to...

Many of our customers find it interesting that the foundational code developers at AFT are former rocket engineers. Jeff Olsen and I wrote the bulk of AFT Fathom ™,  AFT Arrow ™, AFT Impulse ™, AFT Mercury ™ and AFT Titan ™ from 1993-2003. Jeff is currently AFT's Vice President of Technology. We both hold B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering. 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...

AFT Fathom 8 has a new and improved method for predicting system pressures that involve laminar flow or non-Newtonian fluids.  The Adjusted Turbulent K Factor (ATKF) method is used to apply corrections to pipes and components involving these special flows.  The ATKF method can be enabled on the System Data tab in the System Properties window. Clicking on the question mark next to the ATKF method will access the AFT Fathom 8 Help Content that discusses the ATKF method in detail. In September 2012, Applied Flow Technology and DuPont published a technical article for the International Pump Users Symposium that discusses...

Resource planning for engineering projects can often be a challenge.  Just when you’ve finished finding projects for all of your staff, an unexpected client call occurs which requires immediate additional technical personnel.  Or, your best fluid flow engineer has recently left the company – just in time for you to be awarded a large integrated team engineering project in which they were proposed to play a key role.         Purple Mountain was originally founded to provide consulting support for AFT software products  and has since evolved to assist clients with a broad range of fluid flow challenges. If...

AFT Arrow is a highly accurate and powerful compressible flow analysis tool and rather than solving various compressible flow correlations, AFT Arrow is simultaneously solving the fundamental mass, momentum, energy, Equation of State, and Mach number equations.  Although AFT Arrow accurately calculates the fluid physical properties throughout the compressible pipe network, there is also a high level of complexity associated with these calculations. We have seen several models that have various convergence issues and there is a common troubleshooting technique that solves the majority of these issues.  This technique is simply changing the specific heat ratio accuracy option from “High” to...

Many of you work for organizations located outside the USA or with a presence outside the USA. Getting timely answers to your sales and support questions wherever you are located is important in order for you to support your projects and operations. AFT Employees and Channel Partners join together for a picture straight out of the "Old West." You may not know that AFT has a network of 36 channel partners around the world that assist us in providing this kind of support. We travel frequently to visit them and they also often visit us in the USA. This year on...

We’re getting closer to our 4th Channel Partner summit. For us in AFT, it’s a very special occasion since it gives us the opportunity to personally thank all our Channel Partners for their great effort in helping AFT become the worldwide number 1 option for hydraulic solutions. Starting with the hotel chosen for the Summit, this event will be not only be a three day working session where future marketing strategies will be discussed, it will also be a Summit seasoned with enjoyable surprises. At AFT, we know that fun and work are not mutually exclusive and this will guide our...