Innovyze Surge Line Brings Surge Events to Life With Cutting-Edge Pipe Profile Animations

Innovyze Surge Line Brings Surge Events to Life With Cutting-Edge Pipe Profile Animations  High Quality Animation Gives Engineers Inside View of Model Activities for the First Time

Broomfield, Colorado USA, January 17, 2011 — Innovyze, a leading global innovator of business analytics software and technologies for wet infrastructure, today announced the worldwide release of the SurgeAnimatemodule for its industry-leading surge product line. The breakthrough pipe profile animation module brings a new level of visualization and interpretation power to transient analysis, helping engineers quickly gain a thorough understanding of the complex phenomena occurring within their distribution systems. Available for InfoSurge and InfoWorks TS, the module is ideal for assessing the strength and effectiveness of water supply and distribution systems under a wide range of hydraulic transient conditions, from routine operation to emergency states. It has unprecedented power to help users confidently determine the best combination of surge protection devices to minimize the impact of objectionable pressure transients. The enhanced product suite reflects Innovyze’s vanguard position in the water industry and its continuing commitment to delivering pioneering technology for improving the safety and reliability of the world’s water supply. “This key new modeling functionality makes it easy to get a handle on how transient waves propagate over time in distribution systems, allowing water utilities worldwide to better see how transient events are mitigated by surge protection devices,” noted Christopher W. Baxter, Ph.D., President of HYDRANNT Consulting Inc., in Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada. “Innovyze continues to raise the standard in the industry.” Anticipating and controlling transient response is critical to ensuring the protection, integrity, and effective/efficient operation of water distribution systems. Transient responses can introduce pressures of sufficient magnitude (upsurge) to burst pipes and damage equipment. The resulting repercussions can range from extended service outages to loss of property and life. Transient responses can also produce sub-atmospheric pressures (downsurge) that can force contaminated groundwater into the distribution system at a leaky joint, crack or break, leading to grave health consequences when carried out downstream in the pipe system. Sustained sub-atmospheric pressures may also lead to cavitation and water column separation, resulting in severe “water hammer” effects as the vapor cavity collapses. The Innovyze transient flow simulation technology suite addresses every facet of pressure surge analysis and its role in utility infrastructure management and protection, delivering the highest rate of return in the industry. It provides the engineer-friendly simulation framework water utilities need to identify characteristics that can make their water supply and distribution systems more susceptible to transient pressure events. Users can quickly and efficiently assess the effects of power outages, pump shutdowns and startups, valve closures, rapid demand and pump speed changes, as well as the efficacy of any combination of surge protection devices. The product suite also accurately simulates cavitation and water column separation and evaluates their intensity. Its blazing simulation speed, unrivalled in the industry, makes transient analysis an easier and more enjoyable task. The new SurgeAnimate module enables users to create live animations of pipe profiles simply by specifying the first and last nodes; the rest is done automatically. Tank and reservoir levels, pump speeds, water flow or velocity rates are all animated. Many surge devices (such as air valves and bladder tanks) are also animated in detail. Animation speed can be set and stopped or restarted interactively at any simulation time period, allowing the user to thoroughly view and analyze the model’s transient activities (including cavitation pressure). Animations can be saved as AVI files. Armed with these mission-critical network modeling capabilities, water utilities can more accurately assess their susceptibility to low or negative pressures caused by transient surges, identify vulnerable areas and risks, evaluate and design sound control and mitigation measures, and determine improved operational plans and security upgrades. “The ability to confidently assess distribution system vulnerability to pressure transients is becoming more critical every day,” said Innovyze President and Chief Operating Officer Paul F. Boulos, Ph.D., BCEEM, Hon.D.WRE, F. ASCE. “Our new SurgeAnimate module makes models come alive, allowing users to go inside the pipes and network elements for the first time. This unprecedented ability to see and experience model transient activities in real time is critical to designing reliable, enduring systems and protecting public health.”