Notes: General Information and Brochure - click here
Feature Overview
PlantFLOW is a special purpose program developed to simplify the process of piping network flow analysis. PlantFLOW calculates pressure drops and flow velocities in both open and closed networks to assist engineers in pipe sizing, meter station design, and compressor, pump, and heat exchanger pressure loss evaluations.
As a follow-on to the Bentley FLOW product, PlantFLOW contains many unique features including the ability to handle gas mixtures using equation of state models, customizable fluid libraries, heat transfer, and 3D interfaces with the Bentley AutoPIPE piping stress software, Autoplant plant design CAD system, and Intergraph PDS (utilizing the Bentley STRAIT translator) for transfer of geometry and physical properties data. The ability to transfer data between plant design CAD, piping stress, and fluid flow analysis using 3D coordinates can be a tremendous advantage over traditional fluid flow analysis methods which are limited to 2D geometry.
PlantFLOW offers an easy to learn mouse driven graphical user interface which displays the piping system in 3D and enables the engineer to review analysis results graphically or through reports.
An advanced version of PlantFLOW, called PlantFLOW Plus, contains many sophisticated features including real gases, heat transfer, ASME steam tables and NIST hydrocarbon mixtures. PlantFLOW standard version is designed for ideal gasses and liquids.
Overview
Developed to meet the needs of companies involved in industrial piping system design, PlantFLOW utilizes Windows-standard commands, object oriented graphics technology, and CAD interfaces to enable users to create, modify, and review piping and flow models and their results quickly and easily.
A graphical representation of the model is displayed as it is being developed, providing instant visual feedback. PlantFLOW performs extensive error checking as the data is being entered and alerts the user if the model does not comply with the regulatory standards of piping design.
Using PlantFLOW’s object oriented graphical select options, users can insert, delete, or modify pipe properties, supports, or offsets across an entire range of points with one command. Graphical selection of ranges is also used for cut, copy, & paste operations.
Feature Summary
The following is a partial list of the features and capabilities of PlantFLOW. Refer to the on-line help for a complete reference of features and functionality.
a. Component Libraries
PlantFLOW contains a comprehensive and extensible library of piping & components including pipes and valves. Pressure losses for bends, reducers, tees, strainers and orifice plates are computed automatically by the program. Effects of bend-bend and bend-tee interactions can also be considered for more accurate analysis. Control point types include: inlets, outlets, zero consumption with known pressure and/or temperature.
b. Fluid Properties Libraries
PlantFLOW contains an extensive list of fluids such as AGA-8 equation of state for natural gas mixtures, NIST hydrocarbon gas or liquid mixtures, Peng Robinson equation of state gas mixture library, generic liquid library and ASME steam tables. Some of these fluids are limited to PlantFLOW plus.
c. Flow and Heat Transfer Analysis
PlantFLOW uses an iterative non-linear matrix solver to analyze a system of boundary conditions, continuity equations, pressure-flow equations, and heat transfer equations for a complex piping system. Use of intelligent defaults allow the user to analyze complex piping flows without in-depth knowledge of this theory. The analysis algorithm can analyze flows for systems containing valves, reducers, fixed and variable pressure losses, centrifugal compressors, exchangers, orifice plates, turbine meters, strainers, straightening vanes, sudden expansion, and sudden contractions.
d. Post Processing
After analyzing a system, users can click on the graphics model to instantly view pressures, flow rates, pressure drops, flow velocities, etc. Color coded results, and pop-up windows enable the engineer to more quickly identify and investigate critical areas without having to review a voluminous amount of batch output data.
Output report options allow users to pick and choose which reports to generate, with or without filters, for on-screen review or printing. Unique filter options allow the user to generate custom output reports based on user defined flow, pressure or velocity.
Using PlantFLOW’s graphical select options, users can graphically select points to be included in the output report. As an example, a user could generate an output report for only 2 points in a 1,000 point model.
e. CAD Interfaces
PlantFLOW 6.1 can import CAD piping models from AutoPlant 97/3D, AutoPlant Designer/Isometrics, ProPIPE, Intergraph PDS, Cadcentre PDMS, and PASCE plant design systems. In addition, PlantFLOW interface allows two-way import/export from AutoPIPE stress analysis.
PlantFLOW can export models to AutoPIPE which then can be exported to AutoCAD. Import and export of piping models between CAD and PlantFLOW can save man hours in the creation and checking of piping and structural models and prevent errors associated with manual entry of piping models.
f. Tutorials
Contains a getting started section and the complete printed version of the tutorials. The printed tutorial is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file and requires that the Acrobat reader is currently installed on your machine. This version can be printed out from within Acrobat so that you can review the tutorials without a computer or execute the tutorials manually.
In addition, there a number of example systems installed with the application, see the following system folder:
C:\Bentley\PlantFLOW V8i\
Limitations:
1. PlantFLOW does not support Computational fluid dynamics (CFD). PlantFLOW uses linear (boundary conditions and continuity equations) and non-linear (pressure-flow and energy) equations, which can be represented by the vector function. The numerical solution of this system of equations is the primary objective of the PlantFLOW solver program. More details can be found under the "Modeling and Solution Techniques" section in PlantFLOW Help