AFT Fathom - Hand Pump Design Improvements - Cedarville University, USA
As the PVC Well Pump senior design team at Cedarville University, we are working to characterize and improve a current hand pump design, which is the sole means to obtain clean water in parts of rural Bolivia. To meet this goal, we are quantifying the expected life of the pumps by:
- Testing wear and failure modes.
- Exploring motorized pumping.
- Obtaining Volumetric and Mechanical efficiency characteristics.
- Creating a web-based computations design tool in order to calculate and model potential design changes.
AFT Fathom - Pump Energy Reduction in Printing Process - FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, USA
The Sunday morning newspapers contain advertising brochures from national retailers. The ads are very colorful and consist of several pages. Printing such ads involves the use of ink that is supplied from a tank and pumped to one or more rotary presses. In one such operation, the ink is moved upward to a piping system that is suspended from the ceiling of the shop. It consists of a pipe network that supplies five different presses.
The ink consists of a solvent into which a dye is mixed. The ink is continuously pumped through the pipe network and is drawn out by the presses when it is needed. Ink that is not drawn out is returned to the tank.
Pumping the ink continuously in this fashion keeps the ink well mixed, but measurements of temperature in the tank indicate that the ink gets hot. This is objectionable from an environmental viewpoint, and so the ink should be kept cool during the times when circulating it results in a heating effect.
- How many colors of ink have to be on hand to produce a typical Sunday morning newspaper advertisement?
- What exactly does the ink used in these processes consist of? Is it hazardous to the environment? What are the properties (density. viscosity, etc.) of these inks? Are all inks solvent based or ate there water based inks on the market?
- Working only with black Ink, size the pipelines using the optimum diameter to minimize costs. Must special metal be used for the pipe? Determine the flowrate in each of the Interior lines.
- Are there other modifications that should be considered and analyzed?
- What is the power that has to be supplied at the inlet? What pressure is required? .
- In continuously moving the ink through the network, the tank temperature is raised by about 10°C. Size or select a heat exchanger that will transfer the heat to water, whose inlet temperature is 25°C
- Select heat exchanger types, flow rates of both fluids required, and predict outlet temperatures.
AFT Arrow - OPTIOX: Enhancement of Seawater Desulphurization Plant - FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Design and optimization of air distribution grids and aeration elements for oxidation purposes with fine air bubbles
AFT Arrow - Steam Boiler for Process Steam Inside Tire Production Industrial Research Project - FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Design and optimization of saturated steam distribution inside Powerhouse/Production Area for production purposed of tires
AFT Arrow - Investigation of Noise and Vibration in a Regulator Valve System - Utah State University, USA
Mack Severe Service Valves has a pressure regulator valve that is currently in use. However, when a
large pressure drop occurs across the pressure regulator, the flow velocity of the gas tends to reach a sonic or critical flow rate. This condition causes significant noise and vibration in the system. This noise is
undesirable and limits regulator use in many locations. The purpose of this design team is to investigate
the causes of this noise and design and test devices that are expected to reduce the noise of the regulator valve system.
How can the noise from the regulator valve be reduced while maintaining a scalable, modular design?
Currently there are a few options that have been implemented by other companies in mitigating the noise level of fluid flow through pipes. These possible solutions include a multistage, restrictive orifice device; casings, and other similar methods. Before one of these options can be chosen as a possible solution, it is necessary that research be performed to determine the cause of the noise.
Three separate methods will be used to investigate this:
- Employ fundamental analytic models using classical compressible flow theory.
- Investigate the flow conditions using sophisticated numerical simulation software, such as AFT Arrow.
- Build and experimentally test the flow noise using a prototype system based on IEC 60534-8-3 test specifications. These methods will be correlated and used for determining modifications to the internal valve flow passages.
AFT Impulse - Investigation of Pump Breakdown - Aarhus University School of Engineering, Denmark
In cooperation with Maersk Oil & Gas, the project is to investigate damage on positive cavity pumps, where they are installed in a process of separation systems. As a result of investigations of process management at the platform, I have found that a possible water hammer effect could be the cause of the damage.
These situations are possibly the cause of the damage:
- There are a lot of start/stops of the pumps. That is because the flow in to the buffer tank V-5008 is unstable and sometimes lower than the pumps minimum flow.
- A change in pressure from the separators V-3410 and V-3420 (12 bar to 22 bar), results a change in the outlet pressure of the pumps. This change can be fast, sometimes below 1 min.
- There are two Emergency Shut Down Valves (50290 and 50323). The liquid in the system lead to either V-3410 or V-3420 by closing the first valve and opening the second valve. There could be water hammer effect in the system due to too fast closing the valves.
AFT Impulse - A Mathematical Modeling and Calibration of Transients for the Pressure System Workbench at the Hydraulics Lab - Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería, Colombia
- Determination of the main model parameters for the pumps, valve, accessories and pipeline of the newly implemented pipe system experiment
- Compare the theoretical and the experimental results of fluid transients produced by pump and valve operations.
- Implement a graphical model to illustrate the theoretical and experiments transient behavior in the pipe system.
AFT Impulse - Sensitivity Study of the Transient Phenomena in a Water Open Network System Due to Operation of Control - Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería, Colombia
- Select control devices, operational conditions and network topologies.
- Identify overpressure behavior patterns for each variable for the selected network topologies.
- Give operation recommendations for the control devices on open networks to reduce the over pressures to safe levels.
- Evaluate maximum and minimum operation velocities for the different configurations.
AFT Impulse - A Comparative Study of the Solution of Waterhammer Problems Using Traditional Design Methods and the AFT Impulse Simulation Tool - Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería, Colombia
- Improve the knowledge in the differential equations that describe the behavior of the water hammer phenomenon in pressure systems and the solution by the characteristics method used by AFT Impulse.
- Compare the results obtained by applying traditional methods such as the Rigid Water Column Theory, the Allievi General Theory and the Aggus Equations with the results obtained by AFT Impulse for basic water hammer problems in: single pipelines, series networks, and pumping systems.
- Learn about the AFT Impulse simulation tool and apply to model water hammer phenomenon in pumping systems and a water distribution network.
AFT Impulse - Investigation into the Behavior of Beam String Pipeline Crossings - Imperial College London, United Kingdom
When pipelines are required to span deep valleys or long waterways, the two conventional solutions are either to tunnel beneath or to build a bridge to carry the pipeline. The proposed alternative method incorporates the steel pipe itself, along with pre-tressed cables and struts to create a self-supporting structure to span the required distance. The current project investigates the dynamic behavior of this structure based on the various design loads that a pipeline might face.
- Investigate the dynamic behavior of this relatively new type of structure in order to provide engineers with guidance on designing these structures
- Improve the author’s knowledge of both the dynamic response of these slender structures and of pipeline design
AFT Impulse - Standalone Solar PV Powered Water Pumping System - Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Department of Electrical Engineering, India
Standalone Solar PV powered water pumping system is being designed developed and implemented at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras as a part of academic research. This system is proposed for irrigation purpose (3 HP Pump) and for domestic purpose (1HP Pump). For 1Hp pump application, considering the economic aspects, 48VMPP solar PV array has to be used. Hence a low voltage Inverter is made for this.
Solar PV water pumping system consists of a Low voltage Solar PV array, high gain DC-DC converter, a Variable frequency drive, controller and an induction motor based centrifugal water pump.
Modelling of varies modules of the system becomes necessary for understanding the system and also for better control of the system to utilize the maximum power available from the solar PV array. So a model for the DC-DC converter, Variable frequency drive, solar PV array and centrifugal pump is also developed. A novel control algorithm is developed for maximum power point tracking for solar PV array.
- Obtain the system curve and Head vs Flow Curve for a specified centrifugal pump
- Obtain the above curves for variable speed operation
- Hydraulic power measurements
- Simulation tool having a provision to interface with the other commonly available software’s like MATLAB, etc. would be preferred, if not it would be used for modelling of pumps and operation understanding under variable frequency/flow drive
- Simulate the centrifugal pump with the variable frequency drive
- Provision for the throttling should be available in the tool
AFT Impulse - Pumping Station Waterhammer Analysis - NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan
Students from the Department of Civil Engineering are conducting research on water hammer analysis. This analysis needs to be conducted because Karachi water pumping stations have suffered a lot in terms of money and energy due to frequent surge events.
- Analyze the current situation and propose solutions
AFT Impulse - Controlling Surge in Liquid Pipelines - Bladder Type Surge Accumulators - University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
This is study of fluid transients in oil pipelines. This study will primarily use benzene, and will consist of:
- Control of surge events via bladder type surge accumulators.
- The location of an accumulator relative to the valve.
- Compare the numerical difference between the Joukowsky equation and the computer software to see where any differences arise in calculating the maximum surge pressure in a system.
- To investigate the effect of water hammer on an assets infrastructure
- Provide an explanation for why transient analysis is necessary in solving the problem of failed surge-alleviators.