ABZ, Inc. | Design Flow Solutions

Version 4 Improvements

New Solution Method and Performance Improvements

New Solution Method allows for much quicker solutions of problems. This is especially important for problems with a large number of components and branches.
Improved speed of water/steam solutions based on improved handling of data files.
Improved local area network performance, and shorter solution times for LAN users.

Hardware Improvements

Control Valves - Flow control valves which vary throttled position automatically to maintain a user-specified flow rate.
Pressure regulators and back pressure regulators which vary throttled position automatically to maintain a user-specified pressure (at valve inlet or outlet)
Bill of Materials Reports - provides a listing of all components used in a network and the number of each size of each component used. For pipe, the report includes the length of each size of each type of pipe used. A listing of materials used can also be printed for each branch in a network.
Fitting Modeling Options - commonly accepted practice is that valves and fittings use a turbulent friction factor to calculate their flow resistance. An option to this approach is now provided to use a friction factor consistent with a user specified Reynolds number. This can be important for problems using extremely viscous fluids or operating at exceptionally low Reynolds numbers.
Ability to Remove Tee Resistance - allows the user to remove the resistance of a tee. In this case, the tee is simply a place where flow divides/combines and does not have resistance. If desired, custom tees with non-standard but known resistances can be added as components in adjacent branches.
Standard Fittings - option to automatically select the physical length of reducers and enlargers based on the standard dimensions for common metal fittings.

Improved User Interface

New complete graphical interface allows the user to build a complete network showing all flow paths. Displays pressures, flow rates, fluid conditions, and others at all points within the piping system. Symbolic picture of branch hardware is displayed showing parameter values throughout each branch.
Main program and utilities are now 32 bit programs supporting long file names.
On-line Tutorial to provide guidance on program use.
P&ID Format - an alternative view of the network showing component level detail of valves and fittings (both for screen display and printouts), similar to a process and instrumentation diagram (P&ID).
Integrated Utilities - tightly integrated utilities allow the user to readily view, create, or modify data files directly from DFS menus or screens. In addition, any creation of new data files will result in automatic update of DFS menus and pick lists making new data immediately accessible by all users.
Improved block operations - the user can Cut, Copy and Paste network sections, Merge networks, and reverse actions using the Undo function.
User-defined HOME position and display scale (saved with the specific network file).
Automatic backup of a working file at a user defined interval.
View list of recent files used under the File menu option.
Automatically resize the network display to the largest size that will fit on the screen.
Automatically find a specific branch or tee by its number.
Use ten colors in addition to black in the text feature for notating the screen for important technical information and presentations.
Add images to the workspace in addition to simple text.
Shortcut keys are now provided for many common functions such as printing, opening files and saving files.
Establish 'My Settings' personal configurations allowing individual users in LAN configuration to have unique default settings.

Improved Compressible Methods

Improved Calculation of Temperature Change for Adiabatic Flow Problems.
Solves components with elevation and size changes more accurately with fewer divisions.
Removes assumption that compressibility is constant - calculates a new compressibility factor for each component. Important for problems where pressure and temperature are in a region where Z changes rapidly.
Option to solve gas problems incompressibly - faster for low DP problems without significant sacrifice of accuracy.