Warnings For Pipe Force Calculations

Transient Cavitation Modeling

Transient pipe forces calculated in Impulse attempt to capture the imbalanced hydraulic loading on a series of pipes caused by a pressure wave moving through those pipes. Transient cavitation can cause significant pressure waves in a system while also adding inherent uncertainty to the results. These factors combine such that transient forces calculated while cavitation is present in an Impulse model are also uncertain and should be treated with caution. For more information, see the discussion on interpreting cavitation results.

Variable Density

When the density is variable, AFT Impulse cannot accurately account the hydropressure differences that affect force calculations. The magnitude of the error introduced by variable densities across the length of a Force Set is proportional to the density differences.