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WE ARE PARTICIPATING IN OTC 2012 .......................................................................................................... 2

STANDARD MATERIALS SUPPLIED FREE TO ALL PIPENET USERS WITH MUS .................................. 2
BRAND NEW DRY PIPE MODELING CAPABILITY ........................................................................................3
START-UP OF A FIREWATER SYSTEM ..................................................................................................................3
SHUT DOWN OF A DELUGE SYSTEM ...................................................................................................................9
START UP AND SHUT DOWN OF A LOADING SYSTEM ..................................................................................... 11
Start-Up of Loading System without Including Loading Arm ...................................................................... 12
Start-Up of Loading System Including Loading Arm ................................................................................... 13
Shut down of Loading System - Channel Cavitation with Shut Off Valve Closure ................................... 15

PUMP ON/OFF CAPABILITY AND VARIABLE SPEED PUMP................................................................... 17

NEW FEATURES IN PIPENET VISION 1.6 ..................................................................................................... 21
PIPENET TRANSIENT MODULE ........................................................................................................................... 21
PIPENET SPRAY/SPRINKLER MODULE ............................................................................................................... 21
PIPENET STANDARD AND SPRAY/SPRINKLER MODULES ................................................................................. 22

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WE ARE PARTICIPATING IN OTC 2012

Everyone has heard of OTC Offshore Technology Conference. It is the foremost trade show for the
offshore oil & gas industry. Sunrise Systems is participating in OTC 2012 to be held April 30 May 3 2012.
Please see us in Booth 11504, the Pavilion, Reliant Park, Houston, Texas. We will be there to give live
demonstrations and answer questions. We would be delighted to see friends old and new.

STANDARD MATERIALS SUPPLIED FREE TO ALL PIPENET USERS WITH

MUS
We know that PIPENET is only as successful as how well our customers can use it. We have a technically
brilliant program in PIPENET, but in order to help our customers to get the best value from their investment
in PIPENET we must provide effective tools for its. It is becoming apparent that some of our customers are
not aware of what tool are provided with PIPENET software. The following screen shots of the PIPENET
folder shows what is supplied as standard delivery. You will find these in the PIPENET folder after version
1.6 is installed.
The training materials contain not only our training manuals but also the data files for the examples used in
them. The utility programs are for converting steady state data files to transient data files. We have
invested heavily in developing these materials and we encourage our customers to make full use of these
powerful resources.

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BRAND NEW DRY PIPE MODELING CAPABILITY

This is a unique development in version 1.6 of PIPENET Vision. The need for modeling priming of dry
systems has been has been recognised by the engineering community for a long time. Hitherto there has
been no rigorous way of modeling such systems. No longer! PIPENET Transient module can now model
priming of dry systems rigorously with no compromises. Two example are shown below. The first one is
concerned with the priming and shut down of a dry deluge system. The second example shows a
hydrocarbon loading system and its priming.

START-UP OF A FIREWATER SYSTEM

The offshore fire protection system under consideration protects a platform complex, with several fire
pumps, caissons, overboard dump valves, deluge valves and deluge nozzles. The scenario of interest is
one fire pump starting on one platform and the deluge valve opening on another platform. The firewater
ringmain is flooded and the deluge system is initially dry. The aim of the simulation is to estimate the
priming time of the deluge system rigorously. The firewater system under consideration is shown below.
In this model we will consider a clack shut deluge valve. PIPENET Transient module can also model
elastomeric sleeve type deluge valve which regulate the pressure. We will not consider such a valve in this
model. The PIPENET schematic of the system is shown below.

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Deluge valve which

opens/closes

Fire pump which will

operate

Deluge system which

will operate

PIPENET Vision version 1.6. can calculate how each pipe in the deluge system will be primed and
when each nozzle will deliver water.
There are actually two parts of the overall system which are dry at the start of the operation.
(i)

The first part is the caisson with the fire pump impeller. The caisson is only partly filled with
water and the rest of it is dry. After the fire pump starts the water level will rise, expelling the air
and finally fully priming the caisson. After the caisson is fully primed the water will go out
through the overboard dump valve. As the overboard dump valve closes the water from the fire
pump will go into the firewater ringmain. This model is described below in the section entitles
Pump priming and the overboard dump valve operation.

(ii)

The second part which is dry is the deluge system itself. Typically the deluge valve will open
before the overboard dump valve has closed. As the water from the fire pump goes into the
firewater ringmain after the overboard dump valve has closed, it will increase the pressure and

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the deluge system will begin to get primed. This is described in the section Deluge Valve
5
Opening and Deluge System Priming.
Modeling of the above two aspects are described separately below.
Part 1 - Pump priming and the overboard dump valve operation
A two-node caisson type 1 is used to model the fact that during the quiescent state of the fire protection
system, the fire pump would be stopped and the caisson (sometimes called the riser pipe) is only partially
filled with water. When the fire pump starts air will get expelled from the caisson through to air release and
the water level will rise. Ultimately, the caisson will become fully primed, and the fire pump will deliver
water initially through the overboard dump and subsequently into the firewater ringmain when the
overboard dump valve closes.
The use of the overboard dump valve is a fairly standard configuration these days. This is modeled by an
operating valve which closes linearly from 12 to 17 secs on the assumption that the caisson would have
fully primed before 12 secs.

Overboard dump valve closes

after caisson primes

Caisson primes after

fire pump starts

Part 2 - Deluge Valve Opening and Deluge System Priming

Typically the deluge valve opens at the same time as the fire pump receives a signal to start. Although the
deluge valve can open there will not be sustained flow through it because the ringmain would lose
pressure. After the pump begins to deliver water, the pressure will rise and the deluge system will also
begin to prime.

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Deluge Valve which opens

Nozzles to be considered in
the graphs are shown in red

Graphical Results
In the first graph below, the plots of some of the variables near the pump are shown.

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The second graph below shows what happens in the vicinity of the deluge valve and how air gets pushed
out of the deluge system.

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The third graph below shows the flowrate through some of the nozzles in the deluge system after the
8
deluge valve opens.

Nozzle Priming Times

PIPENET has the capability of showing the results in the data window. This is a very convenient way of
looking at the nozzle priming times. Please note that these are the times at which the initial flow through
the nozzles will start. This can happen because of cavity formation in the higher points in the system
leading to draining of the firewater ringmain. This may not indicate the time at which full flow is established
full flow through the nozzles is established.
It can be seen below that the last nozzles to start to delivering water do so at 6.6 secs. The first nozzle on
the other hand starts to deliver water at 4.5 secs. The sorting facility of PIPENET is very useful for this.

Nozzle 2 and 4

It can be seen below that the first nozzles to start to delivering water do so at 4.5 secs. The sorting facility
of PIPENET is very useful for this.

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Nozzle 16

Please note that these are the times at which the nozzles start delivering water. In order to determine
when the full flow is established in the nozzles we should look at the graphical results. It can be seen that
the deluge system reaches fully established flow at around 18 secs by looking at the third graph in the
Graphical Results section above.

SHUT DOWN OF A DELUGE SYSTEM

Deluge Valve Closure and Deluge System Draining
One of the points to bear in mind in modeling system draining is the fact that the driving force will become
less as the system drains. Finally, the driving force will become negligible and the flow will cease even
before the system is completely dry. In the following example, three of the nozzles are chosen for study.
The graphs show the sequence and the times when the flow through these three nozzles will stop.

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Line from Deluge

Valve

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START UP AND SHUT DOWN OF A LOADING SYSTEM

In this application we consider three different simulations and they illustrate different points.
Start-Up of Loading System without Including Loading Arm The purpose of this simulation is to show
how long it takes for the product to reach the end of the loading line.
Start-Up of Loading System Including Loading Arm The purpose of this simulation is to show that the
pump can take the product through the high point in the loading arm. Please note that during normal
operation the static head loss on the riser part is compensated by the static head gain on the down comer.
During pump start up, as the riser is primed, the down comer is empty and the static head loss will not be
compensated.
Channel Cavitation with Shut Off Valve Closure and Pump Running The purpose of this simulation is
to show the role of the channel cavitation model during system shut down. When the system shuts down
potentially a large cavity can form in the down comer if the shut off valve is closed without closing the
loading arm valve. There will be no cavity on the riser side.

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Start-Up of Loading System without Including Loading Arm

The above system transfers lube oil from a plant to a sea tanker. Closure of the shutoff valve, the ERC
valve and pump failure are classic applications of PIPENET Transient module. What is new in version 1.6
is the capability of modeling the start-up and priming of the pipeline.
The above loading system consists of a product pump, a pipeline 5697 m long, a shutoff valve, a jetty pipe
150 m long and an ERC (Emergency Relief Coupling) valve. In the first case, which is shown by the above
schematic, the loading arm is not explicitly modeled. In the second case the loading arm is explicitly
modeled. The pump runs up from 5 secs to 10 secs (i.e. 5 secs run up time). The shutoff valve and the
ERC valve remain fully open throughout the simulation.
It can be seen from the graph below that the product will reach the shut off valve at around 2600 secs after
the pump starts. It can be seen how the throughput of the pump decreases as the pipeline gets primed. It
can also be seen how the main pipeline is primed first and then the jetty pipe is primed.

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Start-Up of Loading System Including Loading Arm

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The first graph below shows a zoomed view available in PIPENET Graph Viewer. It can be seen that the
pressure at the inlet of the riser increases as the pressure at its inlet also increases. On the other hand, the
pressure at the top of the down comer remains at atmospheric until the air is completely expelled.

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Shut down of Loading System - Channel Cavitation with Shut Off Valve Closure
As described in the introduction, in this scenario, the tanker valve is open while the shut off valve closes.

The pump keeps running at full speed.

The results upstream of the shut off valve are much as expected. On the other hand, the results at the
loading arm are worth of examination. It can be seen that the product continues to flow through the tanker
valve even after the shut off valve closes. This is because a cavity forms at the top of the loading arm
which grows in size. When the height of the liquid in the down comer is low enough to create vapour
pressure conditions in the down comer. At this point the cavity stops growing and the flow stops.

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PUMP ON/OFF CAPABILITY AND VARIABLE SPEED PUMP

One of the much requested capabilities in PIPENET is pump on/off switch in the steady state. This is now
available in PIPENET Vision version 1.6. PIPENET can also model variable speed pumps in steady state
now. The relevant properties window is shown before and after the calculation. The first case is where the
pump is on and the second case where the pump is off.
Pump on Case

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Pump on/off switch

Pump speed

Pump Off Case

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Pump switched off

Dot indicates pump is off

Variable Speed Pump

In this simulation the target discharge pressure of the pump is 8.9 barg. The objective is to determine the
pump speed which would give 8.9 barg at the required node.

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Target pressure is 8.9 barg

Input data in the properties window is shown below.

Set point

The pump operating point by way of its speed, discharge pressure and the flow rate are sown in the screen
shot below. It can be seen that the pump needs to operate at 91% speed in order to achieve the set point
of 8.9 barg on node 2.

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NEW FEATURES IN PIPENET VISION 1.6

PIPENET TRANSIENT MODULE
Dry Pipe Modeling
Modeling of pipes which start dry, and then fill up.
Also models pipes that start full and then empty.
Transient effects in these cases now have a significant increase in realism.
Nozzle Modeling
Nozzles can now be directly modeled.
Two behaviours corresponding to Spray versus Standard options.
Nozzle priming sequence.
Tank Type definition
Tanks Type components (receiving vessels, accumulators, simple tanks, and surge tanks) can be
defined by a table of x-section area versus height.
Graph Viewer
Graph viewer can display pressure envelope.

PIPENET SPRAY/SPRINKLER MODULE

New Autolayout shapes
Horizontal cylindrical tank.
Spherical tank.
Design conforms to chosen standards and design rules.

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New Autolayout user interface

Dynamic inspection of the 3D model.
Draw curved pipes.
Spray Diagrams
Unwrap autolayout shape to show spray patterns.
Use colours to distinguish amount of water at each location.
Results can be printed or included in reports.

PIPENET STANDARD AND SPRAY/SPRINKLER MODULES

Pump on/off
Flow-rate is now guaranteed zero when the pump is off.
Variable Speed Pump
Change the performance curve by specifying the pump setting as a fraction of the maximum speed.

PIPENET STANDARD, SPRAY/SPRINKLER AND TRANSIENT MODULES

New Report Generator

Design the report layouts you want, as Word templates.

New PIPENET feature to generate results in XML format.
New Word plug-in, allowing you to insert required PIPENET quantities and tables into your report.
Combine results from multiple models/calculations.
Enhance the inserted content (fonts, totals, headings ).
Insert other content (text, images, etc) as required.
Automatic update when the calculation is re-run.
Works with all three PIPENET modules.
Pre-1.6 report mechanism is still supported.

Units and precision

Override number of decimal places displayed on schematics.
Overwrite user-defined units with a standard unit.
Limit decimal places for dimensionless values.
Miscellaneous Enhancements
The Delete key now can be used to delete selected components, and text.
New output fields in Spray and Standard reports (static head loss, friction factor).
We have standardised reported version numbers as per the PIPENET release (so in this case, 1.6
which implies the calculator used)
Two node caisson type 2 modelling - transfer functions and liquid surge relief valve algorithms have
been improved..
Messages for orifice plate warnings in Standard and Spray modules have been improved.
REStoCSV.exe is a new program to convert Transient RES files into CSV (comma separated
variable) format, from which they can be displayed in the tabular format of your choice.
Only important messages are displayed during installation
And much more!

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SUNRISE SYSTEMS LIMITED, CAMBRIDGE CB25 9QZ, UNITED KINGDOM

Web site: www.sunrise-sys.com
Copyright 2012 SUNRISE SYSTEMS LIMITED. All rights reserved.