AFT Blog
Sometimes design engineers will install a screen to protect equipment like centrifugal pumps. Screens are available in a variety of configurations, each with its own head loss characteristics. AFT Fathom provides a screen junction that allows users to choose from four different screen types: Perforated Plate (Sharp-Edged)Perforated Plate (Round-Edged)Circular WireSilk Thread Screen This article primarily discusses thin-walled, sharp-edged perforated plates with uniform diameter holes. Every screen has an open flow area that allows the working fluid to bypass the screen while restricting any foreign objects that are not able to pass through this area. The open flow area is typically comprised...
Ensuring your pump has sufficient net positive suction head available (NPSHA) is essential to reliable pump performance. For positive displacement pumps, this includes accounting for acceleration head, which will reduce a pump's NPSHA. What is acceleration head? Acceleration head is the energy required to change the velocity of the liquid in the sy...
Learn how to use AFT Fathom and AFT Arrow to help calculate the Likelihood of Failure (LOF) for Flow Induced Vibration (FIV), Acoustic Induced Vibration (AIV), and Flow Induced Pulsation (FIP) in accordance with Energy Institute Guidelines to avoid vibration induced fatigue failure. Introduction to Vibration Induced Fatigue and Failure Repeat...
Many AFT users have come across the message that a reference pressure is needed when attempting to run a model but do not often know how to handle it. Why is it showing up? What can they do to fix the issue? Before going too far, it is important to understand the problem is a limitation of physics and math, not of AFT software. We will wo...
Air compressors, they are a machine that everyone has interacted with in their life time. Whether it is in the garage, at the gas station, or in a manufacturing environment compressed air is everywhere. Compressed air is one of the most widely used utilities out there, but also one of the most expensive utilities out there. The key to is to make su...
AFT Fathom, AFT Arrow, AFT Impulse, and AFT xStream all have a tab in the Pipe Properties window called "Fittings & Losses" which allows users to quickly specify K factors for components within a pipeline such as valves, elbows, and area changes. The Fittings & Losses allow you to simplify your model and avoid workspace clutter by inte...
Pumps and turbines may serve opposite purposes, but fundamentally, they operate under the same principles. Both pieces of equipment convert between usable work and fluid energy, and both often use an impeller to make the conversion. Differences between the two pieces of equipment quickly start to appear as they are examined with more detail. A pump...