One of the toughest aspects of hydraulic system design is accepting that a system cannot always operate at steady state. Whether system transients are intentional or unintentional, routine or emergency, understanding a transient’s impact on a system is critical to ensuring safe, continuous operation.

Applied Flow Technology has released AFT Impulse™ 9 for engineering teams to better understand their systems during deviations from steady state. Waterhammer and surge analysis performed in AFT Impulse helps engineers around the world mitigate failures & avoid downtime by providing the reliable information necessary to prevent incidents before they happen. While new features and capabilities strengthen this analysis software with each new version, AFT Impulse has been a premier and reliable transient analysis tool since its release in 1997.

New features in AFT Impulse™ 9 include:

• A redesigned Gas Accumulator window to improve usability and add new features such as calculating liquid height
• Improved multi-scenario graphing to compare and animate design alternatives with different time steps
• Options to convert Shear Rheometer data for Power Law and Bingham Plastic viscosity models
• The Herschel-Bulkley viscosity model for shear thinning or thickening fluids with a yield stress
• A streamlined setup from the new Analysis Setup menu, a user-friendly workflow condensing several model-wide specification windows into one
• An overhauled Library Manager (previously the Database Manager) offering a consolidated way to access and customize libraries of fluids, pipe materials, components, etc.
• Color-coded, organized, and prioritized list for warnings, errors, and Design Alerts shown in the Output for quick review

Often waterhammer issues are addressed only by specialist consulting companies due to waterhammer’s esoteric nature, but AFT Impulse continues to be developed with the everyday engineer in mind. Not only will an engineer understand the cause of a problem with AFT’s visualization tools, but they can also design, test, and implement their solution.

Waterhammer Education and Resources

Engineers accumulate a lot of knowledge over their career about how to solve very particular problems. Often a concern with waterhammer and surge analysis is where to start, especially since rapid transient events are not covered in a typical undergraduate (or even graduate) fluids course. In the past few years, AFT has noticed greater interest in waterhammer from engineers hoping to understand this complex phenomenon. AFT has developed materials to meet this interest, not only for advanced topics like identifying and mitigating waterhammer by modeling in software, but also introductory fundamentals and theory to help engineers understand the what and why of waterhammer analysis. Engineers of all experience levels looking to expand their waterhammer knowledge are welcome to join

AFT in several ways:

• View upcoming free educational webinars at http://bit.ly/AFTWebinar or watch recorded webinars at https://bit.ly/3sPpXHb.
• Subscribe to Waterhammer Wednesdays, a monthly email dedicated to delivering basic waterhammer knowledge and upcoming events. Sign up for the newsletter at https://bit.ly/3KtMi3e.
• Visit www.waterhammer.com for educational articles, videos, and resources. This site has something for all experience levels, from physics foundations to mitigation options and everything in between. Contact AFT if you would like to help provide content and resources.
• Join AFT as a member of the Hydraulic Institute’s Waterhammer Committee, focused on waterhammer awareness and its impact on pumps and piping systems. Visit www.pumps.org for more information.

View the full list of AFT Impulse 9 features and download a free demo at
https://www.aft.com/products/impulse

Founded in 1993, Applied Flow Technology is a leader in the pipe flow modeling software market. With a primary focus on developing high-quality fluid flow analysis software, AFT’s comprehensive line of products for the analysis and design of piping and ducting systems is used in more than 80 countries to engineer safer, more efficient systems and solve operational problems. Learn more at www.aft.com