Reducer

To add a new reducer, click the button  of Components toolbar or use the corresponding item of "Insert - Component" menu. Please note that the new component is added to the project tree after the currently selected element. Therefore, to add a new component after an existing one, select it in the project tree or in the graphic window and add the new component. If you need to add a new component to the beginning of a branch, select the branch in the project tree and add the new component.

The reducer element is used to model the hydraulic resistance caused by the flow contraction/expansion, as well as friction losses and hydrostatic losses at the reducer if it is smooth.

After adding a reducer, its characteristics will be displayed in the Object Properties Window:

• hydraulic component type/dimensions - here you need to select the reducer type (smooth reducer or sudden contraction/expansion) and enter its geometric characteristics:

The specified values of the new inner and outer diameters after the reducer are applied to all components of the branch after this component until the end of the branch or until the next component with a diameter change (if there is one in this branch). Please note that when adding and deleting reducers, as well as when changing their new diameter value, the program will not only automatically adjust the values of the diameters of all the following components in this branch (up to the first element with a change in diameter if any), but will also change the values of the radii of the bends and elbows in this branch if they are equal to the standard value of 1.5*DN (for pipes with DN < 500mm) or 1*DN (for pipes with DN >= 500mm).

• name - by default, the name of any piping component coincides with its type, but if necessary, the name can be changed in this field. When changing the hydraulic component type (when selecting different types of reducers), its name will also change, but only if it has not been previously changed to another manually. Specify the name that you would like to see for this element in reports with calculation results. To display the name of a pipeline element on the diagram, click the corresponding button to the right of its name;

• quantity - this parameter is usually not used for reducers. It is used for other piping components (for example, for fittings) when modeling several identical elements. In this case, you can enter the quantity of these elements in this field and the hydraulic resistance and heat losses of this element will be multiplied by the specified value. Since there are unlikely to be several identical reducers in one pipeline branch, this option is of no practical interest for it;

• elevation difference - the elevation difference of a reducer is the vertical distance between the center of its outlet and inlet cross-sections (a positive difference means that the component's exit point is located higher than the entry point, a negative difference means the opposite). Please note that it is not necessary to set the elevation difference for reducer manually - this parameters can be automatically calculated based on the specified directions of the pipes before and after the reducer and the reducer length by clicking the "Recalc by graphics" button (in the form of a blue "calculator") for this reducer in the Object Properties Window or by enabling the "Recalculate elevations and angles on graphic before every analysis" option in the program settings (in the second case, before each calculation, the program will automatically recalculate the elevation differences on all pipeline elements, bend angles, etc. and store/correct them in the input data). To display the "Recalc by graphics" button, do not forget to enable the "Scaled graphic view" and "Show all components" options in the pipeline graphic view options (on the View Options toolbar); in addition, the "Precise graphic representation of scaled view" option must be enabled in the program settings;

• axis offset - for eccentric reducers, you can enter the axis offset value along each of the coordinate axes for a more accurate display of the reducer on the diagram and to take into account the difference in height on it (if the offset occurs in the vertical plane).

A sudden contraction/expansion is considered from a hydraulic point of view as a "point" (or "concentrated") resistance, which has no length, while a smooth reducer is considered as a "dimensional", that is, having length, resistance.