Reference

Glossary

The words this guide and the program use, in the sense they use them. The number in brackets is the lesson where the term is worked with.

A – C

Actual flow, Q: Volume of air at the local pressure and temperature, in the plain unit of the Air consumption list: L/min, m³/h, cfm. Changes along a pipe as the air expands. Compare normal flow. (1, 6)
Artificial demand: Air a consumer takes only because it gets more pressure than it needs: the difference between its flow at the pressure it gets and at its Audit required pressure. A regulator before it removes it. (10)
Audit mode: Calculation from the compressor as it is set towards the consumers: what pressure each one really gets, where the air goes, what it costs. Marked in teal. (10)
Audit pressure: The unload (upper) pressure setting of a compressor on site, gauge. The one value an audit requires. (10)
Auto-signature: A caption with the item's ID, placed next to it automatically. (5)
Baseline: The scenario all others are compared with, and the one audit measures are never applied to. A new file has one scenario, As is, which is the baseline. (12)
Bottleneck: In an audit, one of the three pipes with the highest pressure loss per metre at maximum load. (10)
Card: The catalog data of an item — read once, when the item is placed, and carried inside the .gf9 from then on. Shown in tabs, as many as the card has (usually up to five), and as black rows in the Item tab. (3)
Catalog: The Elements folder next to the program, shown as the Items tree. (3)
Choked flow: Flow through an orifice that has reached the speed of sound: it depends only on the bore and the upstream pressure, not on what is downstream. Sets in below the critical pressure ratio, 0.528 for air. (1)
Compressor room: One source with several machines on one header, shared out by a dispatch law. Its machines are drawn as satellites. (9)
Compressor selection: The window where one candidate machine is described and its capacity controls are compared on this network; the accepted one gives the energy figures. (9)
Connection: A line from an outlet to an inlet. It carries air without loss; a pipe item placed in it adds the loss. (1, 4)
Connection point: Where a connection attaches: red — outlet, green — inlet, yellow — false connector. Holds one connection. (1, 4)
Cs: Cost of the compressed air a year, on the compressor: normal flow × operating hours × new unit cost. (1, 6)
Cyclogram: The time diagram of the working cycle: when each consumer is on. Sets the real demand over time; without one every consumer is taken at its maximum. (14)

D – L

Design mode: Calculation from the consumers back to the compressor: what the source must deliver so that every consumer gets its design point. The default mode. (7)
Design point: In design mode, the inlet pressure (Pin) a consumer must get, and the flow it takes there. (7)
Dispatch: How a compressor room shares the demand: CASCADE, SEQ, BASETRIM, SHARE, BESTFIT. (9)
Dynamic mode: Calculation of pressures, flows and cylinder strokes in time, driven by the cyclogram. Marked in purple. (15)
False connector: A yellow connection point. A port that is neither an inlet nor an outlet. The design calculation does not follow a path through it — except port B of a catalog 5/2 or 2×3/2 valve, whose card has three false connectors. (1)
Gauge pressure: Pressure above atmosphere, as a gauge shows it. All pressures on cards and in the Item tab are gauge; the calculation works in absolute terms inside. (1)
Generic element: An item with no catalog data of its own, described by your numbers — under # Generic elements # in the tree. (1)
Group: Several objects handled as one; an item with its caption is already a small group. (4)
Input parameters: The conditions of the whole scheme: normal state, temperatures, prices, hours. (6)
Item bar: The strip at the bottom of the sheet while an object is selected: its ID, previous and next element, rotate, mirror, duplicate, drawing order, auto-signature, delete, scale. (2)
Leak test: A measurement of the leakage with all consumers off: by load / unload times or by pressure decay. (10)
Load point: One of the two states an audit calculates: maximum — every consumer at its design demand, the rows of all elements — and average — each consumer times its utilization, the yearly figures. (10)
LOOP: The element that closes a ring main (loop in # Generic elements #). It has two inlets and no figures of its own; the flow at the closure is read on the pipes next to it. When the ring cannot be solved as a network, it carries the error Isobaric ring model. (9)

M – R

Measure: An improvement the audit found — a lower setting, a larger pipe, a regulator, a repaired leak — with its effect calculated on the same network. Applied into a scenario, never into the baseline. (12)
Min audit pressure: The lowest compressor setting at which no consumer is short of pressure at maximum load. Searched only when Audit is pressed. On a network without leaks it equals the Pout of a design calculation. (10)
New unit cost: Price of a normal cubic metre at the pressure the compressor really delivers, worked out from Compressed air cost quoted at Pressure of air. (1)
Normal flow, Qn: The same air brought to the normal state of Input parameters — a measure of mass. Written with a capital N: NL/min, Nm³/h; or scfm. Conserved along a pipe. (1, 6)
Pin, Pout: Inlet and outlet pressure of an element, gauge. Pin of a consumer in design mode is its design point. (1, 7)
Pin as background: Context-menu command of a picture: makes it the wallpaper of the sheet, under every item and line, where the mouse no longer picks it up. The anchor in its corner unpins it. (5)
Polyline: A connection drawn by hand, node by node, started with Ctrl+click on a free point. (4)
Pressure of air: The pressure at which the compressed air cost was quoted — not the pressure the compressor makes. (1, 6)
Pressure profile: Graph of the pressure along the path from the compressor to a consumer; shows where the pressure goes. (8)
Problems panel: The list of errors, warnings and recommendations of the last calculation, opened from the indicator in the status bar. (8)
Recommendation: A better catalog component for an item (↔ row, wrench badge), or an audit measure (» row). (3, 8, 12)
Reverse flow: Row of an element whose air runs against the direction it was drawn in; normal in a ring. (9)
Ring main: A main closed into a loop with LOOP, fed at one point; air reaches each take-off from both sides. (9)

S – Z

Scenario: One version of the network in a file: As is, Proposed… Each has its own elements, connections, cyclograms, texts and zones; Input parameters and units are shared. (12)
Source: The compressor. The Source list on the toolbar picks the compressor the cyclogram, the work cycle and the per-compressor figures follow. (2, 9)
Source tie: A LOOP whose two inlets lead to two different compressors: the compressors and everything between them are calculated as one network, at one common outlet pressure. (9)
Thresholds: The limits of the checks of the Problems panel — velocities, pressure losses, dew point, leakage — stored in the scheme. (8)
Utilization: In an audit, the share of time a consumer runs, %. Replaced by the cyclogram when there is one. (10)
Variant calculation: One parameter of an element varied over a range, each value a full calculation, with the scheme figures for each. (8)
Visor: The vertical marker of the current moment in the cyclogram and the dynamic plots. (14, 15)
Work cycle: The cyclogram of one compressor as a file — a workbook or CSV of switching times, for a dust collector its firing programme. (14)
Zone: A frame around part of the scheme with a label that shows its demand, pressure, leaks and cost live; a zone with a compressor in it is a supply zone. (13)
.gf9, .gf0: A scheme file, self-contained; a catalog symbol made in Editor8. (1, 3)