Optional Input for Pipes
The Initial Flow Guess for a pipe can be specified. An appropriate initial guess can decrease the number of iterations required to arrive at a converged solution.
The Solver generates initial guesses on its own, which is usually sufficient to produce a converged solution. If this is not the case, user defined guesses can help obtain a solution.
A single pipe object can be specified as a number of parallel pipes. When multiple pipes are defined, the parameters in the pipe properties window represent only one of the parallel pipes.
A design factor can be used to add safety margins into the hydraulic analysis. For pipes, three design factors exist:
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Pipe Friction: friction factor is multiplied by the design factor assigned to the pipe.
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Pipe Fittings & Losses: total loss factor (K-factor) is multiplied by the design factor assigned to the pipe.
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Pipe Heat Transfer: the thermal resistance for each heat transfer layer is divided by the design factor assigned to the pipe.
The Special Condition for the pipe can be set to None or Closed. Setting this to closed prevents flow through the pipe, like closing a valve. A symbol (default of "X") will be placed before the pipe label and the pipe will appear dashed, indicating that it is closed.
