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AFT Fathom™ 13

Steady State Pipe Flow Modeling Software

AFT Fathom is a fluid dynamic simulation software to calculate pressure drop and pipe flow distribution in liquid and low-velocity gas piping and ducting systems.

  • Accurately simulate individual system components and interaction
  • Tightly integrates equipment characteristics, analysis and output with your system’s schematic representation
  • Provides a wide array of features without sacrificing your need for a short learning curve
  • Frees you to focus on your system, not the mechanics of software manipulation
  • Significantly improves the quality of systems engineering you can achieve, leading to less costly, more efficient and more reliable piping systems

Experiment with operating conditions and scenarios
  • Easily change system input data, including valve positions, pump operation, control set points, pressures, temperatures, and more
  • Model a wide range of system components for both design and operational cases
  • Vary your system line-up: open/close pipes and valves, turn pumps on or off, set control valves to fail position
  • Specify design alerts that automatically highlight output values that are out of range for flow, pressure, velocity, pump efficiency, and more
  • Find pump data from online manufacturer catalogs
  • Compile libraries of your frequently used piping components and select them from a drop-down list
  • Address the viscosity and frictional changes associated with pumping non-settling slurries and a variety of other non-Newtonian fluids
  • Evaluate codes and industry standards applied in the model
  • Calculate the cost of system pipes and components as well as energy cost
  • Import piping layouts from:
    • CAESAR II® Neutral files supported by AutoPIPE®, ROHR2, TRIFLEX®, etc.
    • PCF Files supported by AutoCAD Plant 3D®, SmartPlant®,  CADWorx®, and other GIS shapefiles supported by ArcGis, etc.
  • Import and export files in EPANET format
  • Clearly import Excel data into multiple scenarios and export with the Excel Export Manager
  • Export data to evaluate Flow Induced Vibration (FIV) according to Energy Institute Standards

AFT Fathom is designed for steady state fluid systems containing the below fluids and more:

Water

Refined Products & Chemicals

Cryogens & Refrigerants

Low velocity gases

Typical Applications
  • Pipe and Duct Sizing
  • Relief valve sizing and system calculations
  • Pump sizing and selection
  • Control Valve sizing and Selection
  • Simulating System operation and component interaction
  • Evaluating pipe insulation and heat transfer in pipes and heat exchangers
  • Troubleshooting existing systems to determine the cause of operational problems

Primary Features of AFT Fathom 13

Primary Features of AFT Fathom 10
  • Track all your design variants and potential operating conditions in a single file with Scenario Manager
  • Use integrated, customizable graphing and reporting to make analysis visually intuitive
  • Evaluate Pump and System curve interaction including composite head and efficiency curve
  • Calculate the capital costs of pipes and components as well as operating energy expenses
  • Leverage built-in libraries of fluids and fittings to build your own database upon
  • Consider viscosity and frictional effects from non-Newtonian viscosity models or non-settling slurries
  • Model your centrifugal and positive displacement pumps to account for
    • Shifting performance curves through variable speed control and impeller trimming
    • Viscosity corrections using standards from the Hydraulic Institute
    • Wire-to-water efficiency including pump, motor and variable frequency drive efficiencies, used to size motors and evaluate power usage
    • Acceleration head loss for positive displacement pumps
    • NPSH evaluation
  • Size motors and evaluate power usage by considering wire-to-water efficiency (including pump, motor and VFD efficiencies)
  • Account for heat transfer effects in pipes and heat exchangers
  • Ensure a design adheres to industry standards such as API 526, ANSI/HI 9.6.3, API 610, or NFPA Standards
  • Import piping layouts from CAESAR II® Neutral files, PCF Files, and GIS shapefiles regardless of source
  • Integrate with Excel to import model data and export output data
  • Built-in libraries of fluids (including NIST REFPROP and ASME Steam Tables) and fittings which can be extended and customized
  • Optional Chempak add-on utility provides a thermophysical database of almost 700 fluids

Modeling Features

Pipes

  • Specify diameter, length and roughness or select by material type and schedule from the built-in database
  • Select friction modeling from an extensive list including:
    • pipe roughness
    • Hazen Williams
    • MIT Equation for crude oil
    • Miller Turbulent Method for light hydrocarbons
    • User specified pipe resistance
    • Friction modeling includes pulp & paper and non- Newtonian fluids
  • Model heat transfer and add insulation layers – predict insulation surface temperatures to ensure compliance with workplace safety regulations
  • Use embedded fittings to reduce workspace complexity

Pumps

  • Explore the interaction of pumps and your system
  • Model pump power and associated energy costs
  • Evaluate a large range of potential pump selections by importing external databases or linking to Intelliquip™ powered pump selectors
  • Select between fixed specified flow or modeling with a pump curve
  • Model VFDs and pump control to maintain a set flow rate or head/pressure
  • Automatically correct for viscous fluid behavior
  • Predict available NPSH

Valves

  • Model relief valves, check valves, three-way valves
  • Determine control valve capacity and insure adequate pressure drop
  • Simulate pressure and flow control valves to test system interaction in the design stage
  • Display effective Cv and K factor values for all valves in the system
  • Identify control valve position to ensure stable valve operation

Fluid Property Models

  • Constant fluid properties
  • Variable fluid properties - you can specify differing fluid properties on a pipe by pipe basis
  • Heat transfer with energy balance, single fluid - modeling heat transfer through pipe boundaries and heat exchangers along with fluid property variations with temperature
  • Heat transfer with energy balance, multiple fluids - modeling heat transfer between multiple hydraulic circuits thermally linked through heat exchangers

Scenario Manager

  •  Evaluate “What-if” cases by comparing several scenarios
  • Make data changes in one scenario can be passed down to dependent scenarios
  • Easily develop and switch between different operating conditions or configurations
  • Evaluate new or expanding system configurations
Modeling Features

Reporting Features

Output

  • Display pipe and junction reporting sections all at once or individually
  • Select output format, units and displayed items through Output Control
  • Make changes to the format without re-running the analysis
  • Export results to a file or copy/paste into Excel for additional reporting options
  • Display differing units for parameters simultaneously
  • View input and output data for multiple scenarios simultaneously

Visual Results

  • Displays selected input or output parameters with your model schematic
  • Vary pipe color in the model according to parameters you define based on pressure, temperature, flow and many others to see results in the context of your system
  • Clearly illustrate individual lines in the context of your entire system using color mapping

Graph Results

  • Graphs of flow, pressure, temperature and many other parameters are quickly and easily generated by pipe or along a flowstream
  • Show system curves and pump vs. system curves
  • Demonstrate how system performance varies based on the number of pumps in operation by showing different pump curve combinations in one pump vs. system curve graph
  • Display multiple graphs concurrently

Viewer

Share your models with anyone who may not need a full version of AFT Fathom. The Viewer is a free application that lets you:

  • Open a model and view any of the windows (Workspace, Model Data, Output, Visual Report, Graph Results)
  • Run the model and graph output data
  • Print and export data
  • You cannot edit an existing model or create new models with the Viewer.
Reporting Features
Image

How does it work?

AFT Fathom’s hydraulic solution engine uses the Newton-Raphson matrix iteration method plus proprietary methods developed by AFT to solve pipe flow and duct flow applications. AFT Fathom uses the Bernoulli’s Equation and Reynolds Number-based relationships for pipe friction calculation.
AFT Fathom Add-On Modules
With these software extension tools, you can quickly and efficiently
complete projects. Modules can work individually or together within
AFT Fathom and with your existing AFT Fathom models.

Settling
Slurry

Models the effects of pumping fluids containing settling solids using the Wilson/GIW method

Goal Seek
and Control

Identifies input parameters that yield desired output values and simulates control functions

Extended Time Simulation

Models dynamic system behavior and how critical system parameters vary over time

Automated Network Sizing

Evaluates the complex interaction of system variables to reveal combinations of cost savings

Free Viewer

Viewers allow you to share
your models with others

Product FAQ's

View a full list of AFT Fathom
questions and answers

System Requirements

Ensure your software works
properly with your system
“This analysis would have been nearly impossible using hand calculation methods. The ability to have the control valves balance 24 branches simultaneously was great.”
Rory Heim, Swanson Rink

                            "AFT Fathom allowed us to identify a previously unknown design flaw”                                                                                                      

Jeff Shelton, Ameren
“AFT Fathom is, above all, reliable software. This is crucial to Hatch Mott MacDonald, a company whose reputation depends on the reliability of the final product.”
Hatch Mott MacDonald

                                “Easy to learn, easy to apply, produced great results within seconds.”                            

Sreenivas Garikipati, CH2M Hill
“AFT Fathom reduced the amount of time needed for the analysis and provided a clean description of the pressure and flow results.”
Arturo Saenz, Southern Peru Copper Corporation

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