BOSfluids: Improved pump model and user interface

Pump failure is a common cause of problematic transient flow conditions in piping systems. Simulation of pump failure is therefore an effective way to assess the robustness of a piping system before actual damage can occur. The pump model implemented by BOSfluids uses built-in pump curves to simulate the operating conditions of a pump after its power has been cut off. Although this common and proven approach works reliably, it may lead to artificial pressure waves when the pump model switches from the user-specified pump curves to the built-in curves after a pump failure event.

This BOSfluids release, therefore, implements a more sophisticated method for simulating pump failure. If enabled, BOSfluids will keep using the user-specified pump curves after the power has been cut off, and as long as the flow through the pump and the rotation of the pump impeller conform to the normal operating conditions (both positive). When either of them reverses sign, however, BOSfluids will switch to their built-in pump curves gradually through an extrapolation method. This can lead to more accurate results, especially when both the flow rate and the impeller rotation remain positive for the initial period after the power has been cut
off.

This BOSfluids release also provides a new pump configuration window that enables you to determine the required pump model parameters when those are not available. This configuration window uses pump scaling rules and the built-in pump curves to generate the required pump curves and other parameters. In addition to that, you can now specify pump curves in terms of pressure or pump head; you can switch between pressure and head whenever you want.

Furthermore, we would also like to inform new and future users that our “Water hammer/surge analysis using BOSfluids” training course is available as a self-paced online training course. For more information on this course and other courses please visit us on EngineeringTrainer.com.

For more information on BOSfluids licenses and pricing, please contact:

Software Sales

+31 85 058 00 46

or request the demo version.

Relevant articles:

• BOSfluids 6.2 released
• New support for simulating control systems
• Improved and more efficient user interface