Pumps in PIPENET Transient Module

There are three different pump models in Transient Module which can be chosen depending on the available data and the kind of scenario the user wants to simulate:

Simple Pump:
As the name suggests, it is the simplest pump model available, but it is enough for most of the simulations. A pump provides a pressure increase, which depends on the pump speed and performance curve. The pump performance curve H-Q is entered in a library. For start-up and trip scenarios the start-up time and the full stop time have to be estimated, whereas with the following models, it can be automatically computed by PIPENET.

Turbo Pump:
This is the most comprehensive Pump model in PIPENET. The Turbo Pump provides an increase in pressure, and can also handle the ‘spin down’ due to pump failure. The Turbo Pump is defined by a pair of Suter Characteristic Curves. The curves define the pressure head and torque as a function of the flow rate and pump speed over all possible operating conditions.

Inertial Pump:
The inertial pump model is designed to predict a pump’s steady/transient behaviour in the first quadrant; i.e., the working region. The required parameters are fewer and more accessible, compared with the turbo pump. In summary, the inertial pump works like a simple pump at the steady state, but can simulate transient behaviour during start-up and stopping. It just needs the H-Q, P-Q and T-S characteristic curves. The latter is only actually needed for start-up scenarios.

PIPENET Transient Module has been also successfully employed for modelling a range of pump scenarios: booster pumps, pumps in parallel, discharge valve closure, pump change over and many others like pump speed control loops or pump priming.