Network ApproachFlownex uses nodes and elements to represent a thermal-fluid network graphically as shown in the following figure.
Elements are components such as pipes, pumps, valves, compressors or heat exchangers, while nodes are the end points of elements. Elements can be connected in any arbitrary way at common nodes to form a network. Flownex solves the momentum equation in each element and the continuity and energy equation at each node. This gives Flownex a pseudo CFD capability, which allows it to predict complex phenomena such as pressure and temperature waves in pipes and buoyancy effects in packed beds.
Although components may be represented on the systems level as a single entity they may in actual fact be complex sub-networks. The main network with embedded sub-networks are treated as one large network in the solution algorithm.
