G4 Consulting Engineers provides a range of professional mechanical and electrical consultancy engineering services. These include Building Services, Industrial Services, Mechanical Plant, Facilities Management and Electrical Power services.
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G4 Consulting Engineers were presented with an isometric drawing of a smelter cooling piping system. All pipe sizes, required flows to various cooling points of the smelter as well as the supply pressures were given by the client and were shown on the piping isometric.
According to the client, the total smelter cooling water flow and supply pressure should be 2186.3m3/hr at 550 kPa. G4 Consulting Engineers were required to verify these design conditions and analyze the plant performance.
The system comprised a central pump station connected to a complex pipe network which supplied cooling water to forty smelter cooling headers located on various vertical levels. The cooling water supply network operates as one system, and the flows to the various cooling headers and the associated pressures are interrelated. Therefore, the network had to be analyzed a single system. The required flow rates, supply pressures and pipe sizes to supply the various cooling headers were given to us by the client.
By using FluidFlow, the team established that the line sizes were in fact acceptable. The team also used the unique and powerful auto-sizing functions of the program to size all orifice plates and all three circulating pumps. The result of the analysis verified that the design flow rates and outlet pressures could be achieved and maintained based on the orifice plates and booster sizes automatically determined by FluidFlow.
A model of the system was developed in FluidFlow. This model would be used to test the system and benchmark all data as provided by the client. When creating the model, the G4 engineering team developed the model layout, entered all pipe diameters and lengths and defined the design water flow rate required at all points of the smelter. The system included 26 plate heat exchangers, 24 orifice plates and three pumps. All orifice plates and circulating pumps in the system were automatically sized by the software.
The G4 team quickly got to grips with the software which helped them model the system, evaluate plant performance, identify operational hazards, size orifice plates and pumps. FluidFlow helped the team optimise and validate the system design.
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