The First PIPE-FLO 12 Training

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I just got back from running two weeks of training in Bahrain. The client had two groups of 16 engineers that went through our two-day Piping System Fundamentals course followed by our two-day FLO-Master course on our PIPE-FLO software. This also happened to be the first FLO-Master training course we conducted for the newly released PIPE-FLO Professional 12. Since the Piping System Fundamentals course had not been recently change, that course went smoothly and lead perfectly into the FLO-Master course.

Before releasing any new program, the entire development team is on pins and needles worrying about a myriad of details; Will the customers like what we have done? Is the user interface as easy to use as we think? Will they like the new group edit feature? Will someone find a bug that somehow missed our testing?

What really made this exciting is that Bahrain is half way around the world from Lacey, Washington, with an 11-hour difference in time zones. I also learned that the workweek in Bahrain starts on a Sunday. As a result, when I started the class on Sunday morning in Bahrain, it was Saturday evening in Lacey where all our support staff is located.

Since we have a top notch customer support group that has set up hundreds of training centers for our PIPE-FLO class I wasn’t worried about the software installation. Once again, this is the brand new PIPE-FLO 12 program and the training material was still fresh from the printers. First runs will make anyone nervous, even a training and PIPE-FLO veteran like myself.

There were 14 attendees in each course, and 3-4 people in each group had experience with PIPE-FLO 2009, but the majority had no previous PIPE-FLO experience. We started out by exploring the PIPE-FLO interface starting with the existing FLO-Sheet then introducing the new Toolbox, Property Grid, List and Message windows.

In our FLO-Master 12 course, we tend to spend more time on how to make the most of our piping simulation software. Our users fall into three groups, people involved in designing piping systems, those involved in testing and commissioning system, and those who operate and maintain piping systems. Each one of these groups has special needs, and PIPE-FLO’s new flexible interface allows each group to customize the interface to best meet their needs. With the attendees familiarized to the way the program looks and basic functionality, I then moved into the usage and case study portion of the course.

In the first case study, we design a caustic dilution system with two centrifugal pumps, two control valves, static mixer and multiple tanks. In addition to the “how-to” steps dealing with equipment selection we also discuss ways for arriving at a reasonable design margin for pump and control valve selection.

Design options are quickly and easily modeled using new functionality that speeds up the drawing process, including the expanded group select and edit features. For example, by selecting all the pipelines in the project then using the property grid, you can change the pipe spec and fluid zone from the drop down list boxes and all selected pipelines are updated. This greatly reduces the time it takes to build a piping system model.

The second case study has two sections. The first section deals with building onto an existing piping system model and validating the changes to the model. The second section takes the recently created piping system and uses it to help troubleshoot a maintenance problem followed by a process modification.

Prior to building the piping system model, we discuss the various design documents that can be used to build an accurate piping system model. Once all design information it is entered into the PIPE-FLO model, it should provide an accurate representation of the initial system design. Conducting the walk down enables designers to determine if any non-documented changes were made to the system.

The final element in building the model is to validate the systems operation. Taking actual readings from the real piping system and comparing them to the piping system model. The FLO-Master course covers which elements and readings are best to collect and validate.

Once the mode is set to accurately represent current system operation, the simulation is run and the calculated results are compared to the plants operating data. We then move on to the second section of this case study and troubleshoot the system to determine where any problems may lie.

The second section of the case study deals with how the model is used in troubleshooting the operation of a system and how the model can be used to conduct plant studies. In the final example a new process load is added to the system and we discover why the system is unable to meet the new process demands. More importantly with the PIPE-FLO model, we are able to evaluate possible system modification that will meet the new process requirements quickly and without having to do any modifications to the actual running system.

The final example was opened to the attendees and I encouraged them to bring a real piping system they currently evaluating. One of the participants brought in a project that he recently inherited. He wanted to model the system under PIPE-FLO so he could compare the pump needs to the pump that was previously selected.

After building the model and sizing the pump, the engineer was able to determine the required total pump head. His calculated pump head requirement was 24 ft of head at the design flow rate. He then compared that to the pump selected and was surprised to see the selected pump produced 240 ft of head at the design flow rate. During his presentation to the attendees, he said he believed the pump was over sized, but he never imagined it would be to that extent. He was able to make the analysis of his system in less than 2 hours!

There were complements galore about PIPE-FLO 12 especially from the 6 people that had used PIPE-FLO 2009. The toughest critics we will likely have will be the users of earlier versions of PIPE-FLO since the program will look much different from before. Their encouraging responses were music to my ears since this was really the introduction of the new PIPE-FLO program as much as it was the new FLO-Master training material.

When I got back to the office, I shared the class’ PIPE-FLO 12 and FLO-Master feedback with the development team. Now that the program was officially released, and with a positive initial reception, they were all smiles. I was all smiles that I accomplished the first public presentation of the new training material! I expect great things from the coming year and I’m truly excited to share the next generation of PIPE-FLO with everyone.

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