Welcome to VariSim version 4.1 - one of the most powerful pipeline fluid simulator products available on the market today. VariSim is a Windows package written in the .NET environment that takes full advantage of todays computing power and software advancements. It is based upon principals that have been developed, tested and verified during the last 50-year period within a rigorous research and development program. The result is an innovative, accurate and reliable product that provides the user with an easy to use modelling environment with easily accessible results. VariSim has been designed to ensure that it accurately models any component of a system that can affect the fluid reaction within a pipeline. This means, gas or liquids, small plant pipe work, long transmission lines, variable flow regimes, telemetry effects, suppression equipment, batched pipelines, variable gas composition, air valves, control logic etc. can all be modelled.

VariSims' output is easily accessible and easy to understand using industry familiar terminology. This fundamental requirement and its unique ability to model variable wave speeds and variable time steps make this a powerful product. Its use ranges from simple, steady state determination to simulating complex surge pressure events. Any operation that can affect the fluid reaction of a pipeline network can be accurately modelled - including the plant area. Complete models can fully consider the interaction between the pipeline, the equipment, the control logic, the telemetry, storage facilities and surge suppression equipment. There is no better way of maximising confidence in the overall system design than being able to simulate the complete interaction between the pipe work, the equipment and the control scheme. Pipe work can be correctly sized and rated, control set-points and control parameters can be tuned, system bottlenecks can be identified and surge suppression equipment can be correctly sized.

VariSim can be connected to the real pipeline through online connectivity to data gathering systems or logger data. To learn more about this capability, visit the SSL website on www.ssl-int.com

The VariSim simulator program consists of two components, the configurator (VariBuild) and the simulator (VariSim). This online help file describes the VariBuild and VariSim functionality in two separate sections. Varibuild is the configuration software program within which the user creates the physical representation of the pipeline or network. No simulation is performed within VariBuild, that function is provided by VariSim. VariBuild is a graphical package that incorporates simple and effective tools for the rapid generation of high accuracy models. Following a health check by VariBuild, the simulator (VariSim) utilises the database for the pipeline simulation process.