Faast Software

since 1972

Brochure for Prospective Users

Information updated: December 2006.

Faast-3 is the original interactive, graphics finite-element program for analyzing fluid flow in piping systems. Allowable fluids are water or any single-property liquid or gas. Typical applications include ...
-- municipal water distribution systems, including fire flow analysis and design,
-- industrial cooling system and process piping analysis and design,
-- shipboard fresh and salt water, fuel and lube oil, and fire main piping,
-- hydraulic power piping, valving, pumping and accumulator analysis,
-- tank and reservoir fill/drain cycle and pumping calculations,
-- heating, ventilation and air conditioning air ducting supply and return.

Faast is the original finite-element method for fluid system analysis, and still the best!
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Executive Summary

Faast provides superior true finite-element solution algorithms for precision modeling of pipes (using both Darcy-Weisbach and Hazen-Williams formulae), pumps (using a user-input set of pump curve points), tanks and reservoirs (using user-input tank curves). Faast includes 15 valve types including 6 pressure sensing valve models, 6 flow-sensing valve models, and 3 passive valve types for use as shut-off valves, throttling valves, orifice plates, restrictions and fittings. Faast also provides a sprinkler model for fire and/or irrigation sprinkler system analysis. Faast allows you to solve problems using fluids other than water.

Faast provides both diurnal (24-hour cyclic) and open-ended time-simulations with an unlimited number of fluid demand curves as well as point demands activated by clock time. Faast's control-system model allows you to simulate both manual and automatic controls, during both steady-state and extended period simulations.

Faast lets you specify and change the boundary values at all nodes in the system, so you may investigate system performance for a variety of source/sink flows and tank/reservoir/aquifer levels in the same session.

Faast graphics, include piping layout plots, head and pressure contour plots, as well as head and pressure profile vectors. Faast provides interactive video graphics, plus paper plots for popular pen plotters as well as DXF files for importing into CAD programs - but Faast does not require you to use a CAD program for data input or for plotting.

For problems involving blending of fluids from differing sources, Faast can provide a display of fluid composition and/or Transport Times after solving a system. This is crucial for predicting municipal water quality.

Faast allows you to specify computational units, whether US-English, Imperial, traditional metric, S.I., or any combination thereof, or you may design your own units to suit your modeling needs.

For more information, contact Faast Software ...

contact Faast Software by the means most convenient to you.

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Topic Index ...

Click on the topic you would like to read, or scroll past this list and read them all in sequence) ...
General fluid system modeling ...
--Computers and operating systems for running Faast-3 (and prices).
--true finite-element solution algorithms
--fluids other than water
--multiple fluids in the same system (Rel.3.4)
--boundary values (how Faast puts you in control of input heads and pressures.)
--pipes and pipe friction modeling
--pump models for centrifugal, displacement, and variable speed pumps.
--tanks and reservoirs
--pressure sensing valve (6 types)
--flow-sensing valve (6 types)
--passive general-purpose valves (3 types)
--sprinkler and nozzle discharge element model
--time-simulations (24-hour cycles or open-ended simulations)
--control-system model
--fluid composition for predicting water quality
--transport latency times to aid in water quality (Rel.3.4)
--computational units
Plotting and Graphics ...
--piping layout plots
--contour plots
--profile vectors
--video graphics
--paper plots
--DXF files

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Computer Systems ...

Faast-3 is available for the following computing environments:

    computer          operating system          video system   
    --------          ----------------          ------------
 386/486/Pent.& up   Win-3/9x/XP, PC/Ms-Dos VGA/EGA/Herc video graphics 
 386/486/Pent.& up   Win-NT4, PC/Ms-Dos     VGA/EGA graphics, mono text only
 Digital VAX         VMS                    Tektronix color & mono graphics 
 Sun Sparc           Sun OS 4.1.3 & Sol.2x  X-Window or Tektronix graphics 


 Versions for other computers and operating systems available on request.
PC versions may be installed and run under either Windows-x or PC/Ms-Dos.

Data files are fully portable between differing computers because all versions support the full Faast-3 modeling language.
Our software rental plans start at only $ 65 (US) per month.
Paid-up licenses start at under $ 1500 (US).
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Faast's True Finite-Element Solution Algorithm

In 1971, Faast pioneered the true finite-element method for solving piping system problems, and Faast is still the most technically rigorous method, hence Faast is still the most powerful and flexible software available. Many popular programs still do not use true finite-element technology.

Faast uses node-and-element notation both externally and internally, and solves your fluid system model by rapid solution of linearized simultaneous equations using a proprietary compressed sparse-matrix technique. The use of simultaneous equations is the key to Faast's ability to accommodate user-variable boundary conditions.

The use of a true finite-element solution method means that your system may be arranged in any topology that you like ... in a tree structure, in a looped structure, in a combination of trees and loops, or what-have-you. Dead-end branches are "no problem" and all flow-conducting elements may be paralleled with each other or with other elements with complete freedom. Multiple pumps in parallel are simply input as multiple pumps in parallel. Parallel pipes are input as parallel pipes - there is no need for you to waste your time calculating "equivalent" pipes or "equivalent" pumps.

Faast's element models use advanced, proprietary second-order convergence accelerators which provide high-precision results in minimum time.

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Faast allows user-defined fluid properties.

Fluids other than Water. Faast has always given you the option of specifying your fluid properties, so that you may solve systems using fluids other than fresh water at standard conditions. Faast users frequently solve problems of salt water, chill-water, lubricating oil, fuel oil, compressed air at low pressures and velocities (where density changes are unimportant), even liquid nitrogen for insulting jackets on superconducting magnets.

To change fluid properties, you merely need to input the density and viscosity, as well as the fluid's name and temperature (for documentation purposes). For liquids, the vapor pressure is also needed to flag potential discontinuities if Faast calculates a pressure below the vapor pressure.

Multiple Fluids. With Release 3.4 of Faast, each node will, if desired, be able to have its own values for fluid properties including density and viscosity.

This feature is important to the fields of industrial and marine piping, as well as natural gas and compressed air piping, where fluids such as fuel oil, lube oil, and compressed gasses experience significant changes in density and/or viscosity at various places within the system. You will be able to define (and change) the properties of any number of fluids, then assign those fluids to various nodes in the system. Nodes not explicitly assigned a fluid will have the properties of the standard fluid (which may also be changed just as it may be in prior Faast releases).

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Two Friction Models for Flow in Pipes

In Faast, fluid flow through pipes is modeled by either of two friction formulae:
The Hazen-Williams formula is empirical and is suitable for piping systems using fresh water in moderately turbulent conditions. Faast includes a laminar flow regime not included in the original formula published by Williams and Hazen. Pipe roughness is modeled by a single empirical parameter called the "Hazen-Williams" coefficient.

The Darcy-Weisbach formula is more theoretical, and is suitable for general fluids in both turbulent and laminar flow. Pipe roughness is modeled by the pipe material's equivalent sand-grain surface roughness, in the same units of measure as the pipe diameter.

In Faast you have the option of including losses due to fittings (so-called "minor losses") with pipes during pipe input, or you may include fitting losses explicitly as discrete elements - or you may mix the manner in which you model fittings and include some with the pipes and model others explicitly as you may deem appropriate to your purposes.

In Faast you may change one or more of the properties of any pipe with a single command so as to refine your design. You may similarly change various properties of an entire group of pipes with a single command.

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Versatile Pump Models

In Faast, pumps are modeled by a user-input pump curve comprising 6 points on the curve of head-rise versus volumetric flow. One point is where the pump curve intersects the "head axis" and is the "shut-off" or stall head value. Another point is where the pump curve intersects the flow axis, and is the theoretical flow at zero head-rise. The other four points are in the actual operating range between the two axes.

This system allows you to input curves so as to model centrifugal pumps (both constant and variable speed), as well as positive displacement pumps. The Faast-3 Reference Manual contains an appendix which includes an "Application Note" which shows you how to model all these types of pumps.

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Modeling Tanks and Reservoirs

In Faast, Tanks and Reservoirs are modeled by a user-input curve of head or pressure versus stored volume. This allows you to model conventional tanks of prismatic or non-prismatic shape, plus pneumatic tanks and accumulators, as well as arbitrary storage basins such as natural and artificial lakes. In addition to the curve, you input the current tank condition at the start of the problem. You may change the tank condition for re-running the problem, and you may sense the tank condition for control purposes.

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Six Types of Pressure Sensing Valves

Faast provides a pressure sensing valve model which is available in 2 major variants for modeling both pressure reducing ("pressure regulating") valves, and pressure relief ("pressure sustaining") valves. Each major variant is available with an optional series or an optional parallel check valve. Thus there are 6 types of pressure sensing valves in Faast.

Each pressure sensing valve, or "PVALVE", may either sense pressure at itself (a local node), or it may be defined so as to sense pressure at a remote node located elsewhere in the system.

Each pressure sensing valve may sense either gauge pressure, or hydraulic head (fluid energy head).

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Six Types of Flow Sensing Valves

Faast provides a flow sensing valve model which is available in 2 major variants for modeling valves which limit flow to either a maximum or a minimum value. Each major variant is available with an optional series or an optional parallel check valve. Thus there are 6 types of flow sensing valves in Faast.

Each flow sensing valve, or "QVALVE", may either sense flow within itself, or it may be defined so as to sense flow in an element at a remote location.

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Three Types of General Purpose Valves

Faast provides a passive (non-sensing) valve model, or throttling valve ("TVALVE") which is available three ways: without check valve ... with check valve in series (to prevent reverse flow) ... with parallel check valve to allow unrestricted reverse flow.

A TVALVE element may be used to model the resistance in an actual valve, or the turbulent resistance in pipe fittings or junctions, or the turbulent resistance through an orifice plate or a nozzle. Turbulent losses due to pipe fittings may be included with pipes, or optionally modeled as discrete elements using the TVALVE.

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Sprinklers and Spray Nozzles

Faast provides a discharge-to-atmosphere sprinkler or spray nozzle element which may be used to model such diverse items as fire sprinklers, process sprayers, and agricultural irrigation spray heads.

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Time Simulations

Faast pioneered extended period simulations in 1972 and provided bench mark validation against closed-form problems (sample problems for which an exact solution can be obtained using differential equations). In Faast, these simulations are called "Time Simulations" since time is an explicit variable.

Faast's time simulations can be set up for a number of time steps which represents a time period of arbitrary duration. Hydraulic loading may be scaled in time (individually for each node if desired), on the basis of either repeating 24-hour cycles, or as non-repeating open-ended functions in time. The control system may sense time as well as all system variables to model actual controls or to interrupt a simulation that has reached an unsatisfactory state.

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Powerful Control System Models

Faast's control system model is based on "Control Links" which take the form of pairs of IF ... THEN ... logical statements. The IF statement may sense any system variable including time. The THEN statement may control any hydraulic component or terminate a simulation if an unsatisfactory state has been reached. A dry tank is an example of an unsatisfactory state. You may easily use the control links to insert and/or remove spot demands (such as fire demands) at certain times of day.

Faast's Control links may be used with steady state solutions as well as with time simulations. An example of using control links with a steady state solution is the case where you do not know in advance how many wells need to be pumping simultaneously to satisfy projected hydraulic demands at a particular time of day. You may run a "SOLVE LINKS" case which will solve the problem repeatedly, with the control system applied between each solution to activate or deactivate individual well pumps, until no further control changes are detected (i.e. enough wells are running).

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Fluid System Boundary Values

In Faast, you may control the hydraulic boundary conditions (i.e. tank levels, well water surfaces, reservoir volumes, node demands, fire flows, et cetera) with complete generality. You may explicitly alter tank levels or node heads and pressures since in Faast your fixed head nodes have node numbers just like your fixed demand nodes. In fact, in Faast you may convert a fixed head (or fixed pressure) node into a fixed demand (or fixed flow) node with a single command. You may similarly change a demand node into a head or pressure node with a single command. In this way you have total control over your model. In fact, you may try a proposed tank or proposed well at various places in your model simply by changing node boundary values.

Fixed flows at nodes are called "demands". In Faast you may scale demands with a scale factor that may be unique for each node (if desired) or uniform over an entire model. You may also add and subtract lump-demands to simulate fire flows, and you may apply time-varying scale factors, which may be uniform over the model or unique for each node, as desired. All three of these ways of altering demands may be applied cumulatively to the set of fixed flow nodes.

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Piping Layout Plots

Faast began providing piping system plots in the late 1970s. Faast-3 currently provides several kinds of video and paper plots. The first kind of plot is a 3-D plot of your piping model. This helps you verify that all pipes are correctly connected together. You may scale, zoom and rotate all plots.

Faast's graphic system uses 3-D real-coordinate technology and can display model and results in your choice of scaled or perspective images. Both types may be viewed in orthotropic or oblique projections.

Faast's plotting system can be used alone, or you may use it in combination with your CAD system by using our DXF plot file option to import Faast graphics into your CAD program.

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Contour Plots

Faast provides 2 kinds of contour plots - conventional gauge-pressure contours which quickly show you areas of pressure that are too high or too low - as well as head contours which display fluid energy head and which quickly show you where you have high energy gradients implying insufficient pipe capacity.

Contour plots can be viewed on-screen, or plotted on paper, or imported into your CAD program to be superimposed on other drawings.

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Profile Vectors

Faast provides you with two kinds of profile vectors - head vectors and pressure vectors. A profile view of head vectors along a run of pipe shows you how the fluid energy head varies on that section of pipe. Pressure vectors show how pressure varies along a run of pipe (when viewed in profile) or over an area when viewed obliquely. Viewing head or pressure vectors provides an alternative to contour plots which is easier for the eye to interpret.

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Video Graphics

Video plots can be in color or monochrome depending on your computer system. Supported video devices include Super VGA, VGA, Herc mono, and other popular video systems on PC computers, plus X-Window and Tektronix graphics terminals (and compatibles, of course) on workstations, mini- and main-frame computers.

On PC computers, Faast automatically detects what kind of video system you are using so that you never need to install or pre-configure Faast for a particular video system. Faast works really well with dual-video PCs - where your text is on one monitor and your graphics are on the other monitor.

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Paper Plots

Paper plots (color or monochrome) are produced off-line from plot files written by Faast. Our proprietary off-line plot driver, called Plotit, can produce plots on many devices including pen plotters from HP, Houston Instruments, and Calcomp (and compatibles, of course) as well as HP laser printers and Epson-compatible dot matrix printers. This feature means you do not need to install Faast for any particular plotter, and you may plot the same data on more than one device.

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DXF Plot Files

Faast optionally writes plot files in the popular DXF format for importing into various CAD programs. Unlike some programs, Faast does not require you to use a CAD program for getting plots.

Faast's DXF plots can be imported into your favorite CAD program and superimposed on other drawings such as municipal street maps and piping layout drawings.

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Fluid Composition and Water Quality

Faast can calculate the composition of the fluid everywhere within your model as a function of the fluid entering the system at all sources. The display is in the form of source fractions, that is, you will see what portion of the fluid at any point comes from each source. This is very important for problems involving blending of fluids from differing sources, and crucial for predicting municipal water quality.

Transport and Latency Times

Starting with Release 3.4, Faast can calculate the steady-state transportation times of the fluid in your model from each contributory source to each point of interest.

This feature will calculate and display minimum, mean, and maximum times for fluid to travel to a given point in the system from each source that contributes to that point (if there is only one path from a certain source to a particular point, then all three times will be the same - but if multiple paths occur then the times may be different).

This is very important for problems involving blending of fluids from differing sources, and crucial for predicting municipal water quality.

These capabilities were pioneered in the 1960s and refined in the 1970s by one of the authors of Faast.
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Computational Units

Faast uses 10 user-definable computational units, which you may set and/or change to suit your personal preference or the nature of your system. Your units may be any variation of US-English, Imperial, traditional metric, S.I., or any combination thereof, or you may invent your own units to suit your modeling needs.

To change the units, you need only specify the unit being changed (such as pipe diameter), the new alphabetic label for the units (such as centimeters), and the new conversion factor for Faast to use. Data may be entered in one set of units and the results may be viewed or printed in another set of units. For example, you might want to input water demands in the units of gallons per capita-day and look at flow results in the units of gallons per minute. Or you may input data in gallons per minute and output the results in liters per second.

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