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FLOWNEX SE 8.8.1 (2017 - update 1)

Flownex® SE’s update 1 is now available within three months of its latest 2017 release, highlighting Flownex’s commitment to paying tremendous attention to regular user-requested updates.

In this update, attention has been applied to the API, industry requested components and ease of use functionality.
We continue to lead the way in the systems simulation tool market with a steady hand on quality, reliability and accuracy, timeous dependable support, and frequent user-applicable development.

ENHANCEMENTS

General (Ips)

Added a search bar on top of several windows that will allow the user to quickly filter the items shown. This search bar is present on the component view, data references views and pages view.

Fig. 1 - Example of Search Bar added to Components

Added an improved image selector to styles – a gallery type image selector is now shown if the user chooses an image for a fill style.

Fig. 2 - Image Selector Gallery

A setting was added to suppress project reloads when file system changes in the project is detected. When a change is detected the source of the change is now displayed in the restart dialog.

Changed drawing pages so that Style and not Style Sheet is used by default. This was done to make it easier to assign background images to pages.

Changed the order of license checks so that a meaningful error message is given. The product not supported error was the error always given no matter what the true error is.

Increased the default page size 16-fold.

Fig. 3 - Increased Page Size

Excel Input Sheets, Reports and Parameter Tables, And Excel Component

Added the capability that a user can click on a component name in Reports, Input sheets and Parameter Tables and then the user will be taken to the component on the canvas.
Formulas will not be replaced on cells if it is defined when dragging and dropping onto Excel input sheets.
Inputs are not prevented from being added to result parameter bindings in Parameter Tables.

Snaps

Added the capability to compare snap files with each other to the Snaps context menu, as seen in Figure 4.

Fig. 4 - Comparing Snap Files

Compounds

The compound template is now copied together with a compound if the compound is copied to a new project. The template is copied even if a library with the same name as the one in which the compound template was located does not exist in the new project.

Property Grid

If a property is disabled by a Data Transfer Link, Input Sheet or Parameter Table, the user can see what is disabling that property by right clicking to show the context menu on that property. The context menu will display the item that is disabling the property and will allow the user to go to that item when clicked, as seen in Figure 5.

Validation

A utility has been created that can run through the projects in the validation pack on a customer’s PC and ensure that they solve correctly and generate the correct results. The utility will create a report with the status of the run, as well as the other relevant information relating to the run.
Fig. 5 - Go to disabler option added to context menu

Complex values can now be displayed in polar form with the phasor angle in degrees or radians. The user can switch between the cartesian and polar form using the options under the Settings ribbon tab. This setting is used when displaying complex values on the drawing canvas too.

Fig. 6 - Complex Values Settings

Result Layers

The result layers functionality has been updated to facilitate complex values.

Visualization & Graphs

The user is now able to drag and drop any complex value from the property grid to the Phasor Diagram visualization. 

Phasor diagrams will now get their initial settings from the project settings, similar to other graphs.

Units

Added 2 kg_force/cm unit for pressure, as seen in Figure 7.

Fig. 7 - Pressure Unit Added

Electrical Library Specifics

Per unit calculations are removed from the Electrical Library to simplify the user inputs (no base value
inputs are required) and results (intermediate values used by the solver are removed).
The Transformer component is updated to:
• be star/delta or delta/star configured,
• take the core loss resistance and magnetising reactance into account, and
• use the percentage impedance to model it.
The Motor is moved from the Electrical library to the Flow Solver library.

Scripts

Scripts can now be encrypted so that proprietary information can be protected when networks/scripts are shared, as seen in Figure 8. Typically, this is used when making libraries of compounds available to other customers. Made double list in mixture properties script of type IPS.Properties.Double in order to allow data transfer to mixture components.

Fig. 8 - Encrypt button available in scripts

Flow Solver

Friction Loss Component

Fig. 9 - Friction Loss Component

Added a Friction Loss component that can be connected to a Shaft. This component is typically used to model additional losses and friction in a shaft.

Motor/Generator Component

The Motor component that was available in the Electrical library was moved to the Flow Solver library. This component uses a supplied torque speed curve and scaling factor to model the connection of a motor or generator to a shaft.

Fig. 10 - Motor/Generator component

Flow Solver Results

Added maximum time step changes for pressure, enthalpy and concentration in order to quantify severity of transients, as seen in Figure 11.

Added the Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy (CFL) number as result for both pressure wave and scalar transport to assist with grid size selection, as seen in Figure 11.

Fig. 11 - Maximum time step changes added to Flow Solver results

Node

Added convergence and time step changes for pressure, enthalpy and concentration on nodes.

Fig. 12 - Convergence and Time Step Changes on Nodes

Pipe

Added a Pressure Iteration variable to the pipe friction factor script so that the script can check the current iteration number.

Added the CFL number as results on pipes for both pressure wave and scalar transport to assist with grid size selection, as seen in Figure 13.

Fig. 13 - Courant Numbers results added on pipes

Warnings & Errors

Added error for cross-sectional heat transfer area being a non-positive number.

Nuclear Reactor

Changed Forward and Backward caption on Secondary Loss dialog for reactor zones to K Forward and K Reverse.

Fig. 14 - Secondary Loss Coefficients dialog

Heat Transfer Element

Added Average conductivity and Average cross conductivity results to the Composite Heat Transfer element.

Fig. 15 - Average conductivity and cross conductivity results added to Composite Heat Transfer element

Added Conductivity and Cross Conductivity to sub element results to the Composite Heat Transfer element.

Fig. 16 - Conductivity and Cross conductivity results added to Sub-Element results

Added Wall/Surface temperature to convection increment results.

Fig. 17 - Surface temperature result added to CHT element

Check Valve

Added the capability to either change the design or the operational condition given a fixed mass flow rate, as seen in Figure 18.

Added the capability to model Check Valves with non-constant opening time by specifying the Opening/Closing dynamic behaviour option as Variable opening/closing time as seen in Figure 18.

Fig. 18 - Variable opening/closing time option and Change Design options added on Check Valve

Secondary Loss Components

Added the capability to either change the design or the operational condition given a fixed mass flow rate, as seen in Figure 19.

Fig. 19 - Change design or operational condition when a fixed mass flow rate is specified

API

A utility function was added to the FlownexSEDotNet class to determine the location of the Flownex executable that is registered with com.

Added the functionality to list properties so that they can be modified through the API, this includes adding new items to lists and deleting them. Accessing existing items in lists and their sub properties still function like in the past.

The network builder can now add images to components and background images for pages.

The network builder can now insert data transfer links.

The network builder can now call a script in a project.

Added Python network builder example.

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