HVAC & Facilities Industry

AFT in the HVAC & Facilities Industry

District Heating & Cooling, HVAC, Data Centers, Campus Systems

To a facilities engineer, it always seems like something is either too hot or too cold. Whether it be heating or cooling, water or air, a building or a district, AFT software can help you support your customers by meeting their system demands just right.

AFT In Action

AFT Fathom Instrumental in District Cooling System Planning, Development & Operation

Company: NRG Thermal Corporation

Problem: The USA’s largest district cooling system in downtown Minneapolis is made up of 5 plants with 18 chillers. An accurate reference model for emergencies and expansions was needed. 

Product Used: An AFT Fathom model was built and calibrated to meet existing system measurements. It enabled optimized system lineup, making load distribution across plants more efficient.

Solution: NRG modeled the district cooling system in Minneapolis to within 2% accuracy, helping maintain its 99.98% reliability goal. The resulting model was Instrumental to planning expansion and guidance to transfer capacity during maintenance or emergencies.

Data Center Air Cooling System Conversion Project Validated Using AFT Fathom

Company: Swanson Rink

Problem: Using an existing HVAC system when converting an office building into a data center. Heating and air flow requirements are much lower than the original system design so the existing ductwork is oversized.

Product Used: AFT Fathom was used to model the existing system to see the previous flow distribution.  Next, they modeled the system with dampers on each branch to meet new flow requirements.

Solution: Swanson Rink used AFT software to model the transition of a commercial office building into multi-user data center space, reusing the existing duct infrastructure. The existing HVAC system could meet the decreased demand of air flow, despite the oversized ducting, and the dampers can change position to meet other flows as demand changes over time.

University of Alabama Reduces Energy Usage with AFT Fathom - Saves 60,000 dollars a Year

Company: University of Alabama/TME

Problem: An expansion of a chilled water system at UA, Birmingham required sizing booster pumps for the most hydraulically remote building to reduce energy costs.

Product Used: AFT Fathom was used to create a model of the existing system and to model several scenarios to analyze different operating conditions.

Solution: Bernhard TME helped the University of Alabama save money by addressing concerns revealed by hydraulic analysis. They found one building was causing the biggest problem and, by adding a booster pump to that building alone, saved 60,000 dollars annually.

Troubleshoot

"Test Drive" operating conditions and scenarios to determine sizes, pressures, temperatures, etc... to fix or upgrade systems

Design

Accurately simulate component-system interactions prior to construction to ensure cost-effective and efficient designs

Import

Avoid redundant model building by importing GIS, PCF, EPANET, or CAESAR II Neutral files

Export

Automate data transfer with the Excel Export Manager, organizing your model's results exactly how you want them

Determine the Optimal System

Pump performance, BEP, fluid transients, force calculations,  
detect sonic choking, and so much more...
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Quickly Build Models You Need

Excel integration, automatically size systems, model importing ... and 17
other features that help engineers efficiently analyze their system.
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Reports & Presentations

Report-ready graphics, animations, and confirming code compliance are just a few reasons to invest in quality flow analysis software.
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