About
Fluid Network Studio
Fluid Network Studio is a browser-based tool for building and solving fluid pipe networks - incompressible and compressible flow, heat transfer, pumps and more - with the underlying methods stated openly and a library of worked examples to learn from. It is Australian owned and developed.
The engineer behind it
Fluid Network Studio is built by Haimi Jordaan, a mechanical engineer.
Haimi holds a Master of Engineering (MEng) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pretoria. His research developed a coupled one-dimensional/three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method for thermal analysis with flow maldistribution, applied to a feedwater heater tubesheet. It was published, and peer reviewed, in the ASME Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications.
That is the same method behind the CFD coupling export in this tool. The one-dimensional network you solve here is what gets coupled to a three-dimensional CFD model, exchanging flows, pressures and temperatures as the simulation converges. It is not a feature added on afterwards - it is what the research was about.
He has spent seven years in a specialist engineering analysis and design group, working across CFD, finite element analysis (FEA) and discrete element method (DEM) projects for demanding industrial applications.
That combination - deep numerical modelling alongside hands-on design work - is what shaped Fluid Network Studio: a tool that is rigorous about the physics yet quick and approachable to use.
Why I built it
The core calculations behind fluid networks are well established. What was missing, in my experience, was a tool that made them genuinely accessible: fast to use, transparent about its methods, and affordable, without the overhead of heavyweight desktop packages or fragile spreadsheets.
I built Fluid Network Studio so that any engineer - whether you solve pipe networks every week or are meeting them for the first time - can model a system reliably and come away understanding it better. The built-in examples and clearly stated methods are there to help you learn, not just to produce a number.
Elsewhere
- Peer-reviewed paper.Jordaan, H. et al., “Numerical Development of a Coupled One-Dimensional/Three-Dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics Method for Thermal Analysis With Flow Maldistribution”, ASME Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications, Vol. 13, No. 4, Article 041017, August 2021. Publisher's page · full text (University of Pretoria repository)
- LinkedIn. Haimi Jordaan
A tool to support your judgement
Fluid Network Studio is built to support engineering work, not to replace the judgement of a qualified engineer. Results should always be reviewed in the context of your specific application.
Questions or feedback? Get in touch at admin@fluidnetworkstudio.com.