BOSfluids capabilities in handling large models

One of the features that makes BOSfluids stand out from other surge analysis applications is its ability to deal with 3-D piping models. This, however, does not limit the size and complexity of the models that can be handled by BOSfluids. By employing a range of optimisation techniques you can comfortably build, view, modify and analyze piping models composed of tens of thousands of pipe and flow elements.

The BOSfluids user interface has been designed and implemented in such a way that it can complete common operation in a fraction of a second, even when handling very large piping models. For instance, when you change the geometry of one particular pipe element, then BOSfluids uses a very fast graph traversal algorithm to update the positions of connected elements. In order to reduce the amount of memory used, BOSfluids employs a so-called copy-on-write scheme to share data between pipe elements with identical properties. This means that its memory usage grows only in a modest way when the number of pipe elements is increased.

To render the piping model in the viewer area, BOSfluids loads a collection of special programs, called shaders, on the graphical processing unit. These shaders can directly transform the piping model to an image without having to create a tessellated surface first. This not only speeds up the rendering process, but also lowers the amount of data that needs to be transferred from the central processing unit to the graphical processing unit. To further save time, BOSfluids employs a progressive image improvement algorithm that is only activated when no user interaction is taking place.

The steady state flow solver provided by BOSfluids exploits the topological sparseness of a typical piping model to speed up the solution method. As a result, it rarely runs for more than a few seconds, except when dealing with very large piping models. Running a sequence of steady state analyses when performing a parameter study, for instance, therefore tends to be a quick process. If possible, BOSfluids will run independent analyses on different processor cores so that a job is completed even faster.

The transient flow solver typically requires much more computations to be performed than the steady state solver. BOSfluids therefore goes to a considerable length to make the transient solver as fast as possible. Before starting the transient solver, a model optimiser will merge adjacent pipe elements with identical properties into longer pipeline sections. This gives the solver more scope to generate an optimal flow grid that balances the amount of work against the desired accuracy. Once the flow grid has been created, a novel grid coarsening algorithm reduces the grid resolution in long pipeline sections to further reduce the amount of work that needs to be done. That work is then divided between different processing cores to fully exploit the available computing hardware. The result of all this is an enormous reduction in execution time, making the transient solver in BOSfluids one of the fastest in its kind.

If you ever have the idea that your pipe flow application is holding you back, then consider switching to BOSfluids. Its ability to handle very large piping models is just one of the features that make it unique.