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. This initial guess will only affect the steady-state solution process.
The Solver generates initial guesses on its own, which is usually sufficient to get the Solver going in the right direction so a converged solution results. If this is not the case, user defined guesses can help obtain a solution.
A design factor can be used to add safety margins into the analysis. For pipes, two design factors exist:
- Pipe Friction: friction factor is multiplied by the design factor assigned to the pipe.
- Pipe Fittings & Losses: total loss factor (K factor or Equivalent Lengths) is multiplied by the design factor assigned to the pipe.
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.
Use Temperature Override for Zero Flow
Enabling the Temperature Override option will force the fluid temperature in the pipe to the specified value for the initial steady-state solution, but only if the flow is initially zero.
If the temperature override option is not used, then the temperature in the pipe will be set to the ambient temperature if the heat transfer model is set as Convective Heat Transfer, or to the temperature of the connected boundary junction if any other heat transfer model is used. See Heat Transfer in Pipes for more information.
