Fluids and bulk
Model liquids, gases, and bulk solids by level and flow rate: materials, tanks and transfer lines, the converters, and the Bulk report.
- Fluid and bulk modelingThe fluid and bulk elements measure a plant by level and flow rate instead of counting items: the two-wire rule, and what these elements do and do not model.
- Materials and the Definitions panelDeclare a material with a name and a unit before you build. The unit is set once and governs every quantity on every tank and pipe that touches the material.
- Tanks and vesselsA vessel holds a level of one material. Set its capacity, starting level and heel, and up to four level marks that can stop an inflow or run a line of logic.
- Transfer linesA transfer line moves material between two vessels or boundaries at a literal rate. Priority decides which line is served first, and logic can open and shut a line by name.
- Supply and DeliverySupply and Delivery are boundaries, not tanks. A Supply never runs dry and a Delivery never fills, so a small model never depends on a made-up source or destination size.
- Unit OperationA Unit Operation transforms material between tanks by fixed percentages that account for everything. It is the one element behind a separator, a clarifier or a blender.
- ManifoldA Manifold is one selection over several interchangeable vessels: it fills or draws from a set of member tanks by priority, level, rotation or product.
- FillerA Filler turns bulk into a stream of filled containers: it draws from a vessel and emits entities of a named type at a rate, each in a named container format.
- Discharge and DumperDischarge turns a tank into a single entity and Dumper turns an entity back into material. Together they are the seam between the measured half of a model and the counted half.
- The Bulk reportA fluid model's output lives on the Bulk tab: levels over time, the mass balance that proves the model is honest, the Tanks table, and the Transfer Lines table with its six time buckets.