Flownex

Developed by M-Tech Industrial, Flownex provides an ideal systems-based simulation tool for virtually all fluids-based processes. It can model any combination of liquid, gas, two phase, slurry and mixture flows in both steady state and dynamic conditions, coupled with a comprehensive library of components including pumps, turbines, valves, compressors and heat exchangers.

Flownex Simulation Environment can be configured to your requirements from a series of modules.

Rapid Design Of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) >>	Flownex within Mining Industry >>	Robust Slurry System Design  >>
Rapid Analysis & Design of Cooling Flow Paths for Turbomachinery >>	Turbine Combustion Chamber Analysis & Design >>	Calculating Pipe Bend Forces >>

Further Flownex Application Examples >>

Thermostat and Thermostat Bypass

Thermostat and Thermostat Bypass components were added to the Flownex component library. Thermostats are required in systems that control the heating or cooling of the working fluid close to the desired temperature. This component is typically found in engine cooling systems or air-conditioning of buildings. The component level behaviour is therefore similar to a valve that will change its opening as a function of temperature.

The new “liquid-gas” fluid model in Flownex is ideal for the accurate prediction of the flow regimes and pressure drop of air-oil flow in many industrial applications. For example, in aero-engines, air and lubrication oil are mixed in a bearing chamber, which is subsequently drained by a scavenging system comprising of a pump and piping system where the air and oil are separated.

The complex nature of this two-phase flow, characterized by turbulence, a deformable phase interface, phase interaction, phase slip, and compressibility of the gas phase makes the mixture difficult to analyse and therefore makes these lubrication systems difficult to simulate.

To overcome these difficulties, Flownex has added an updated set of governing equations to describe the interaction of the phases. Additional pressure drop and flow regime correlations have also been added to provide a commercial solution to the design of pressurised lubrication systems.

A typical thermostat has two flow paths, namely the primary flow path and the bypass flow path, however there are cases without a bypass, and therefore Flownex allows the modelling of a Thermostat with and without a Thermostat bypass. The opening of the Thermostat is dependent on the inlet static temperature and specified as a chart. The opening of the Thermostat Bypass is obtained from the opening of the Thermostat, also defined by means of a chart. The secondary loss for both the Thermostat and Thermostat Bypass as a function of their respective openings are calculated from the user-defined charts for secondary loss versus opening.

Scale Drawing Measurements

The scale drawing functionality has been expanded. A scale drawing ribbon was added to the toolbar with all the scale drawing related functionality.

The user can specify the scale and coordinate system of an imported drawing with two known coordinates on the drawing canvas. This allows the drawing origin to be away from the zero-point on the axis and also simplifies specifying the scale. The drawing scale and coordinate system can be changed at any time and the components will be scaled accordingly.

Point and line measurements can be drawn on top of the imported picture. The line will determine the correct lengths and coordinates from the scale and coordinate system of the imported drawing.

The coordinates of the points and length of each line can be connected to any input fields on components. They are connected without data transfer links to avoid cluttering the drawing canvas.

Fields associated with the measurements are greyed out. Moving the points or lines will update the coordinates and lengths while keeping the associated fields updated.

The point and line measurements or the components and links that are drawn on top of a scale drawing picture, can be hidden and shown when required with the buttons on the Scale Drawings ribbon tab.

The opacity of the background picture can be changed to make it easy to see the measurements on the drawing. The opacity slider on the toolbar is used for this.

Global Parameter Displays on Drawing Canvas

Right-clicking on any property in the input or result grid will display a context menu with a new option called “Display on Canvas”. This allows the user to choose the location where to display this property for all components of the same type. The same context menu of the relevant property on the property grid is used to remove what is displayed on the Drawing canvas.

In the configuration screen, the user can change the advanced configuration options like the number of significant digits, or whether the caption should be displayed.

Script Debugging

The Scripts can be debugged if a debugger is installed on the computer. Visual Studio is recommended for debugging. The Debug button is located on the Script editor. After clicking the Debug button then the user will be prompted to select which debugger to use. A breakpoint can be placed in the relevant function requiring debugging and the run button can be pressed in the debugger to continue. The debugger will break as soon as your chosen line of code is hit.

Liquid Mixtures 

The ability to specify a fluid mixture consisting of multiple liquids was added. The user can select various liquids as pure fluid components in a fluid. The mass fractions for each component are specified similarly for gas mixtures. Flownex will calculate the mixture thermodynamic properties and the user can specify the mixing rules for the transport properties (viscosity and conductivity) by selecting one of the pre-defined mixing rules or coding a script for custom mixing rules. The mixture will be treated as a single-phase liquid in the Flownex solver. A help button was added to direct the user to the appropriate location in the User Manual discussing the mixed fluid theory.

To learn more about how Flownex software can help you or to arrange an upgrade, please submit your request below: