Overview

As a leader in the engineering and construction sector, Black & Veatch was selected for the difficult job of modeling and troubleshooting a client’s large de-mineralized water distribution system.

The system consisted of over 4000 feet of 1-inch pipe, including many loops and branches. Bill Vail at Black & Veatch and his team of engineers needed a tool to confirm that they could push the desired flow rate of 2.5 GPM through the 1-inch pipe.

Black & Veatch not only had to determine if the system could operate efficiently with the designed flow rate, but they needed to accurately size and select the right pumps for the system. Using PIPE-FLO’s supporting pump manufacturer’s catalogs, Black & Veatch was able to import the actual pump curves used in the system.

The Challenge

In order to solve this and other challenges, Black & Veatch evaluated a number of different software applications. Based on their analysis of competing programs, Black & Veatch determined that most of the programs were very difficult to learn and use. In addition, many programs did not share PIPE-FLO’s functionality to calculate a full network or looped piping system. This feature alone saved Black & Veatch significant time from calculating the pressures and flow rates through each individual pipeline.

"There are a number software tools on the market today, but most of them are very cumbersome and hard to use," said Bill Vail, Black & Veatch. "Engineers prefer a software program that is fast and easy to use. This gives us time to focus on the analysis of the system, and less time on learning how to use the software."
Black & Veatch was also faced with the challenge of sizing the pumps to efficiently match the system. They needed access to the specific manufacturers’ pump curves that were being used in the system.

PIPE-FLO's Solution

After an evaluation of many software programs, Black & Veatch decided that based on the program’s power, ease of use and flexibility, PIPE-FLO would provide the solution.

"I was able to quickly model the system and perform the calculations in no time," said Bill Vail.

"PIPE-FLO saved us a tremendous amount of time, because of the difficult calculations involved."

"PIPE-FLO provided us with an easy to understand graphical representation of the system," said Bill Vail. "We could see exactly what was happening in the system when we turned different fixtures off and on. The program also helped us quickly identify problem areas in the system."

In addition to PIPE-FLO’s ease of use and speed of calculations, Black & Veatch found value in PIPE-FLO supporting pump manufacturers’ catalogs. Engineered Software works directly with leading pump manufacturers to enable their pump catalogs to be implemented directly into PIPE-FLO’s piping system.

"One feature that I really appreciated, was that PIPE-FLO and PUMP-FLO are so widely used and supported by virtually all major pump manufactures," said Bill Vail. "When modeling a system it is critical to insert manufactures’ pump catalogs into the system. It makes the design and analysis of the system much more accurate. Instead of using "example catalogs", used by most software programs, PIPE-FLO gives me the ability to see how the actual pump operates within the system."

"Engineered Software’s website provided me with the list of pump manufacturers’ catalogs, many of which can be downloadable directly from the site," said Bill Vail.