Sbm. Beck et Rf. Boucher, STEADY-STATE ANALYSIS OF FLUID CIRCUITS CONTAINING 3 PORT DEVICES, Chemical engineering research & design, 75(A1), 1997, pp. 73-80
An improved implementation of the Newton-Raphson method for the static
analysis of fluid networks has been developed. This now allows circui
ts containing three and four terminal non-linear devices to be analyse
d. One type of multi-port device that is used to control ventilation c
ircuits is the vortex amplifier. This is a three terminal (supply, con
trol and outlet) controller with no moving parts. Vortex amplifier cha
racteristics have been integrated into a ForTran steady state network
analysis program which has been used successfully for designing ventil
ation systems controlled by these devices. Any form of pipe and device
resistance can be defined. Experience of using this program has shown
that the geometry of the network and the relative positions of high a
nd low resistance pipework and devices can prevent numerical convergen
ce. A more detailed examination of this has provided two methods of ov
ercoming this non-convergence.