Terms of Use & Disclaimer

1.1 These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are a binding agreement between you and the operator of Fluid Network Studio, ABN 61 267 830 638 (“the Operator”, “we”, “us”, “our”), governing your access to and use of Fluid Network Studio, including its solver, editor, result displays, exports, documentation and any related websites, applications or features (together, the “Tool”).

1.2 By accessing or using the Tool, creating an Account, or clicking to accept these Terms, you agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Tool.

1.3 If you use the Tool on behalf of an employer, company or other organisation, you represent and warrant that you are authorised to bind that organisation, and “you” includes that organisation. You are responsible for ensuring that anyone who uses the Tool through your Account or at your direction complies with these Terms.

1.4 You must be of legal age and capacity to form a binding contract in the place where you live. The Tool is intended for use in a professional or educational context.

2.1 In these Terms: “ACL” means the Australian Consumer Law in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth); “Account” means a registered user account for the Tool; “Content” means the networks, models, inputs, parameters, names, labels and other data you create, upload or store using the Tool; “Output” means any result produced by the Tool, including computed flows, velocities, head losses, pressures, charts, tables, advisories, exports and reports; “loss” includes loss, damage, cost, expense and liability of any kind.

2.2 In these Terms, “including” and similar words are not words of limitation; headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation; no rule of construction applies to the disadvantage of a party because that party prepared these Terms; a reference to a law includes its amendments and replacements; and where anything is excluded or limited “to the maximum extent permitted by law”, the exclusion or limitation applies only to the extent the law allows.

3.1 The Tool is software that performs steady-state network calculations for liquids and gases, including heat transfer, as described in section 7, from data and assumptions that you provide. It is a calculation aid. It is not a design service, a certification service, a compliance assessment, or a substitute for professional engineering work.

3.2 We may add, change, suspend or remove features of the Tool at any time. We do not promise that the Tool, or any particular feature of it, will continue to be available, free of charge or otherwise.

3.3 Features identified as beta, preview, experimental or similar are supplied for evaluation only and may be unstable, inaccurate, changed or withdrawn without notice.

4.1 The Tool does not provide engineering, design, safety, construction, procurement, financial, legal or other professional advice, and no Output is professional advice. Outputs are computational estimates produced mechanically from the inputs and assumptions you supply, for general information and preliminary analysis only.

4.2 Your use of the Tool does not create an engineer and client, advisory, fiduciary or other professional relationship between you and the Operator. The Operator does not hold itself out as, and is not engaged as, a registered or licensed professional engineer or engineering practice in any jurisdiction, and does not supervise, review, check or approve your work.

4.3 Any design, analysis, installation or other real-world application informed by an Output must be independently reviewed, verified and approved by a suitably qualified, experienced and (where required) registered or licensed professional engineer before it is relied upon, procured, constructed, installed, commissioned or operated. Where a law, code, standard or contract requires certification, sign-off or independent checking, you must obtain it through the proper channels; the Tool and its Outputs do not satisfy any such requirement.

4.4 You are solely responsible for every decision made, and every action taken or not taken, on the basis of an Output.

5.1 Outputs are wholly dependent on the inputs and assumptions you provide, including network topology, elevations, boundary conditions, demands, pipe lengths, diameters, materials, roughness values, fitting loss coefficients, pump curves and speeds, fluid selection and temperature, and solver settings. Errors, omissions or unsuitable choices in your inputs will produce wrong Outputs. The Tool cannot detect whether your inputs reflect the real system you intend to model.

5.2 Default values, libraries and presets offered by the Tool (including pipe dimension schedules, fitting loss coefficients, material roughness values and fluid property data) are indicative values drawn from published sources. They are provided for convenience only. We do not warrant that they are accurate, current, complete or appropriate for your application. You are solely responsible for selecting, checking and where necessary overriding every input value, including every default, against authoritative sources appropriate to your project.

5.3 You are responsible for ensuring that your use of any input data (including manufacturer data, survey data and third-party material) does not infringe the rights of any person.

6.1 You must independently verify every Output before any use or reliance. Appropriate verification may include hand calculations, comparison against published or measured data, cross-checking with independent software, review of the reported conservation residuals and convergence information, sensitivity checks on uncertain inputs, and review by a qualified professional engineer.

6.2 An Output that appears plausible is not thereby correct. Iterative numerical solvers can converge to inaccurate or non-physical solutions, fail to converge, or be sensitive to tolerances, initial conditions and the conditioning of the particular network. The presence or absence of a warning or advisory in the Tool is not a representation that a result is safe, compliant or fit for any purpose.

6.3 You must not rely on, publish, submit or implement an Output that you have not verified in accordance with this clause 6.

7.1 The Tool is designed to model steady-state flow in closed-conduit pressure networks, using empirical correlations of stated provenance, in four modes: (a) single-phase, incompressible liquids - Newtonian, and homogeneous non-Newtonian power-law and Bingham-plastic fluids (Darcy-Weisbach head loss with an explicit friction factor correlation or the stated non-Newtonian correlations, lumped fixed-coefficient minor losses, and pump characteristics fitted from user-supplied curve points with affinity speed scaling); (b) those liquids with steady-state heat loss or gain through pipe walls and insulation (film correlations, composite thermal resistance, enthalpy mixing at junctions); (c) single-phase gas flow at constant temperature (isothermal compressible relation with a compressibility factor that is a user-entered constant or computed from the Peng–Robinson equation of state and applied to density only, fan curves, set-point compressors); and (d) that gas flow with steady-state heat exchange (a one-dimensional marching model with varying density and temperature, optionally with temperature- dependent viscosity).

7.2 Without limitation, and unless expressly stated otherwise in the Tool’s documentation, the Tool does NOT model: transient or time-varying behaviour of any kind, including extended-period simulation, tank or storage dynamics, surge, water hammer, blow-down transients and column separation; cavitation or gas release from liquids (the Tool reports NPSH and flashing figures as advisory diagnostics only - it does not model two-phase behaviour or its consequences); two-phase, multiphase, free-surface or open-channel flow; condensation of a gas or vapour, dew-point effects or liquid drop-out; real-gas behaviour beyond a compressibility factor applied to density (real-gas enthalpy, departure functions and Joule–Thomson cooling are not modelled); sonic/choked flow beyond advisory warnings; settling or heterogeneous slurries, and any non-Newtonian behaviour beyond the homogeneous fluids described in clause 7.1; automatic control behaviour, including control valves, regulators and logic; compressor performance maps, surge or stonewall limits; water quality, age or tracer transport; pipe stress, fatigue or structural response; soil, environmental or installation effects; and erosion, corrosion, scaling, fouling or ageing of components.

7.3 The empirical correlations used by the Tool have published ranges of validity and inherent scatter; real systems deviate from them. Computations are performed in finite-precision floating-point arithmetic and are subject to rounding, truncation, fitting and convergence error. Reported quantities such as residuals are diagnostics, not guarantees.

7.4 The Tool has not been certified, validated or approved against any standard, code or regulation (including any AS, AS/NZS, ISO, EN, ASME or NFPA document) by any authority, and no Output is a statement of compliance with any of them. References to published standards within the Tool (for example pipe dimension schedules) are for convenience in selecting inputs only.

7.5 The absence of a limitation from this clause 7 is not a representation that the Tool is free of that limitation. The Tool’s documentation may describe further limitations.

8.1 You must not use the Tool, or any Output, as the sole or primary basis for the design, verification, certification, operation or modification of any safety-critical or high-consequence system. This includes fire protection and life-safety systems, potable water supply and disinfection, gas and fuel systems, chemical dosing and process safety systems, medical systems, nuclear facilities, aviation and marine systems, and any system whose failure could reasonably be expected to cause death, personal injury, environmental harm or significant property damage.

8.2 For any such system, Outputs may be used only as preliminary or comparative information, subordinate to analysis, review and approval carried out by qualified professionals using methods and tools appropriate to the risk.

9.1 You acknowledge and agree that: (a) numerical models are simplified approximations of reality and their results may differ materially from real-world behaviour; (b) Outputs depend on your inputs and assumptions, which the Tool does not and cannot validate against the real world; (c) you have not relied on any representation by the Operator about the accuracy, completeness or suitability of the Tool or any Output, other than as expressly stated in these Terms; (d) the Tool is a general-purpose aid not prepared with your particular project, circumstances or obligations in mind; (e) you have the professional skill and judgment necessary to evaluate Outputs, or you will engage someone who does; (f) you use the Tool, and act or refrain from acting on Outputs, at your own risk; and (g) the exclusions and limitations in these Terms are a fair allocation of risk given that the Tool is supplied at no charge or for a modest fee, and that the Operator has no knowledge of, or control over, your projects.

10.1 Some features require an Account. You must provide accurate, current and complete information when registering and keep it up to date.

10.2 You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your Account, whether or not authorised by you. You must notify us promptly if you become aware of any unauthorised access to or use of your Account.

10.3 You must not share an Account, use another person’s Account without permission, or create an Account by automated means or under false pretences.

11.1 You must use the Tool only in compliance with applicable law and these Terms. Without limitation, you must not: (a) interfere with, disrupt, overload or impair the Tool or the systems and networks on which it runs; (b) attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Tool, other users’ Accounts or Content, or any related system; (c) probe, scan or test the vulnerability of the Tool without our prior written consent; (d) introduce malware or other harmful code or material; (e) copy, modify, adapt, translate, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer the Tool, or attempt to derive its source code, except to the extent that a right to do so cannot lawfully be excluded; (f) access the Tool by automated means (including scraping, crawling or bulk querying) or use it to build a competing product or a benchmark for publication without our prior written consent; (g) resell, sublicense, rent or otherwise commercialise access to the Tool without our prior written consent; (h) remove, obscure or alter any notice, disclaimer, watermark or attribution displayed by the Tool or included in any export; (i) misrepresent any Output as certified, validated, approved or endorsed by the Operator or by any standard, code, authority or professional; or (j) use the Tool to store or transmit material that is unlawful, infringing or harmful.

11.2 We may investigate suspected breaches of this clause and may suspend or terminate access in accordance with clause 27.

12.1 You retain ownership of your Content. These Terms do not transfer any intellectual property in your Content to us.

12.2 You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, transmit, back up, process and display your Content to the extent reasonably necessary to provide, secure, support, maintain and improve the Tool and to comply with law. We may also use Content and usage information in de-identified and aggregated form (from which neither you nor any identifiable project can reasonably be re-identified) for analytics, research and improvement of the Tool.

12.3 You represent and warrant that you have all rights necessary to store your Content in the Tool and to grant the licence in clause 12.2, and that your Content does not infringe the rights of any person or breach any law or obligation of confidence.

12.4 We do not monitor Content but may remove or disable access to Content that we reasonably believe breaches these Terms or any law.

13.1 The Tool, including its software, solver, algorithms as implemented, user interface, documentation, branding and design, is owned by the Operator or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

13.2 Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to access and use the Tool for your internal business, professional or educational purposes.

13.3 Nothing in these Terms grants you any right to use the Operator’s name, logo or trade marks without prior written consent.

14.1 If you provide suggestions, ideas or other feedback about the Tool, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free licence to use that feedback for any purpose without obligation or compensation to you, and you warrant that you are entitled to grant that licence.

15.1 The Tool is built on and operates with third-party services and components, including hosting, authentication, database and content-delivery services and open-source software libraries. Those services and components are governed by their own terms and licences, and we are not responsible for their acts, omissions, failures or outages.

15.2 The Tool or its documentation may link to third-party websites or resources (including published standards and reference data). Such links are provided for convenience only and are not an endorsement. We are not responsible for third-party material, and your use of it is at your own risk and subject to its own terms.

16.1 The Tool is provided on an “as available” basis. We do not warrant or guarantee any level of availability, uptime, performance, response time or support. Access may be interrupted, suspended or degraded at any time, including for maintenance, updates, capacity, security or events outside our control, with or without notice.

16.2 We are not obliged to provide support, updates, bug fixes or new features. Any support we do provide is supplied as a courtesy and on the same “as is” basis as the Tool.

16.3 We may change the computational behaviour of the Tool between versions (including correlations, defaults, tolerances and numerical methods). Outputs produced by different versions may differ. You are responsible for re-verifying results that matter to you after any change.

17.1 The Tool is currently provided without charge unless otherwise stated at the point of purchase or subscription. We may introduce, change or withdraw fees, plans or paid features at any time. Fees will only apply to you where you have agreed to a plan or purchase that discloses them.

17.2 Unless stated otherwise, fees are in Australian dollars. You are responsible for any taxes, duties and charges arising from your use of the Tool, other than taxes on our income.

17.3 Except as required by law (including the ACL), fees are non-refundable.

17.4 Subscription plans and auto-renewal. Paid plans are offered as recurring subscriptions billed in advance for the billing period you choose (for example, monthly or annually) and processed by our payment provider, Stripe. Unless you cancel, your subscription renews automatically at the end of each period and the then-current fee for your plan is charged to your nominated payment method. By subscribing, you authorise these recurring charges until you cancel.

17.5 Cancelling a subscription. You may cancel at any time through the billing portal in your Account, or by contacting us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period: you keep access to the paid features until then, and you will not be charged for any further period. We do not provide refunds for the unused part of a period except where required by law (see clauses 17.3 and 21).

17.6 Changes to subscription fees. We may change the fees for a plan. We will give you reasonable notice before a change takes effect (for example, before your next renewal), and the new fee applies from the start of your next billing period. If you do not accept the change, you may cancel before it takes effect.

17.7 Failed payments. If a renewal payment fails, we may retry it and may suspend or downgrade your access to paid features until payment succeeds. Your saved Content is dealt with under clause 18.

18.1 Content you save is stored to provide the Tool. You are solely responsible for maintaining your own independent copies and exports of any Content or Output that matters to you. We do not warrant that stored Content will be preserved, recoverable or free of corruption, and any backups we make are for our operational purposes only.

18.2 We may impose reasonable limits on storage, project size or solve activity. We may delete or anonymise Content after your Account is closed, or after a sustained period of inactivity of at least 12 months. Before deleting Content for inactivity, we will give you reasonable prior notice to the email associated with your Account and an opportunity to export it.

19.1 Our collection and handling of personal information in connection with the Tool is described in our Privacy Statement, as published within the Tool from time to time. The Privacy Statement describes our privacy practices but does not form part of these Terms.

20.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Tool and all Outputs are provided “as is” and “as available”, with all faults, and without warranties, guarantees, conditions or representations of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including any implied warranties or guarantees of merchantability, acceptable quality, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, reliability, currency, title, quiet enjoyment or non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing, usage or trade practice.

20.2 Without limiting clause 20.1, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, we do not warrant that: (a) the Tool will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free; (b) any Output will be accurate, complete, correct or fit for any purpose; (c) defects will be corrected; (d) the Tool is free of viruses or other harmful components; or (e) the Tool will meet your requirements or comply with any law, code or standard applicable to you.

20.3 No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained from us or through the Tool creates any warranty, guarantee or representation not expressly stated in these Terms.

21.1 Our services may come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the ACL, and nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred on you by the ACL or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. The exclusions and limitations in clauses 20, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 apply subject to this clause 21.

21.2 Where our liability for breach of a consumer guarantee can lawfully be limited under section 64A of the ACL (including because the services are not of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption), our liability for that breach is limited, at our option, to supplying the relevant services again or paying the cost of having the relevant services supplied again, provided it is fair and reasonable for us to rely on this clause.

22.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event will the Operator be liable, however arising, for: any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive loss or damage; any loss of profits, revenue, business, contracts, opportunity, production, anticipated savings, goodwill or reputation; business interruption; loss, corruption or inaccuracy of data or Content; wasted expenditure, including the cost of rework, redesign, re-tender, demolition, repair or replacement; the cost of procuring substitute software or services; or any liability you incur to any third party, in each case arising out of or in connection with the Tool, any Output, or these Terms, even if we were advised of, knew of, or should have known of the possibility of such loss.

23.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Operator will have no liability whatsoever for any loss or damage of any kind (including property damage, economic loss and, to the extent permitted by law, personal injury or death) arising out of or in connection with the design, specification, selection, procurement, fabrication, construction, installation, testing, commissioning, operation, maintenance, modification, failure or decommissioning of any physical system, plant, network or asset that was modelled, sized, analysed, checked or otherwise informed, in whole or in part, by the Tool or any Output. The persons responsible for such matters are you and the qualified professionals you engage, and not the Operator.

24.1 To the maximum extent permitted by law, the total aggregate liability of the Operator for all claims arising out of or in connection with the Tool, any Output or these Terms, however arising, is limited to the greater of: (a) the total amount you paid us (if anything) to use the Tool in the twelve months immediately before the event giving rise to the first such claim; and (b) AUD $100.

25.1 The exclusions and limitations in clauses 20, 22, 23 and 24: (a) apply to liability however arising, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, equity, restitution or otherwise; (b) apply to the benefit of the Operator and its officers, employees, agents, contractors, licensors and contributors; (c) operate severally and survive termination; and (d) apply subject to clause 21 (Australian Consumer Law).

25.2 Our liability to you is reduced proportionately to the extent that any loss is caused or contributed to by you, including by your inputs and assumptions, your failure to verify Outputs in accordance with clause 6, your breach of these Terms, or your failure to mitigate.

25.3 To the extent permitted by law, any claim by you arising out of or in connection with the Tool, an Output or these Terms must be commenced within twelve months after the events giving rise to the claim first occurred, after which the claim is barred.

26.1 You indemnify the Operator and its officers, employees, agents, contractors, licensors and contributors against all loss arising out of any claim, demand or proceeding brought by a third party to the extent it arises out of or in connection with: (a) your use of the Tool or any Output, including any project, design, advice, report or work product of yours that was informed by an Output; (b) your Content; (c) your breach of these Terms; or (d) your breach of any law or any right of a third party.

26.2 Your liability under clause 26.1 is reduced to the extent that the relevant loss was caused by the Operator’s negligence, wilful misconduct or breach of these Terms.

27.1 You may stop using the Tool, and may close your Account, at any time.

27.2 We may suspend or restrict your access to the Tool, or terminate these Terms and your Account, with immediate effect if: (a) you breach these Terms; (b) we reasonably consider your use poses a risk to the Tool, other users or any person; (c) we are required to do so by law; or (d) we discontinue the Tool or the relevant feature. Where we end your access other than for your breach or for a legal or safety reason, we will give you at least 14 days’ notice and an opportunity to export your Content before access ends. In any other case we will give you an opportunity to export your Content where reasonably practicable.

27.3 On termination, your licence to use the Tool ends and we may delete your Content after a reasonable period. Clauses 4 to 9, 12.3, 13, 14, 20 to 26, 29 to 33, and any other provision which by its nature should survive, survive termination.

28.1 We may amend these Terms from time to time. For material changes we will take reasonable steps to notify you, such as a notice within the Tool or an email to your Account address, before or when the changes take effect.

28.2 Your continued use of the Tool after amended Terms take effect constitutes acceptance of them. If you do not agree to the amended Terms, you must stop using the Tool and may close your Account.

29.1 We may give you notices via the Tool, the website, or the email address associated with your Account. You may contact us, including with questions about these Terms, at admin@fluidnetworkstudio.com.

30.1 We may assign, novate or transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms, including in connection with a sale, restructure or transfer of the Tool or our business, and may subcontract our obligations. You may not assign or transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms without our prior written consent.

31.1 We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including outages of third-party services, telecommunications and power failures, denial-of-service and other attacks, natural disasters, epidemics, industrial action, war and acts of government.

32.1 These Terms are the entire agreement between you and the Operator about the Tool, and supersede all prior understandings and representations, whether oral or written, subject always to any rights you have under law that cannot be excluded. Policies we reference (such as the Privacy Statement) describe how we operate but do not form part of these Terms.

32.2 If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it is to be read down to the extent necessary, or severed, and the remaining provisions continue in full force.

32.3 A failure or delay by us in exercising a right is not a waiver of it, and a single or partial exercise of a right does not prevent further exercise.

32.4 Nothing in these Terms creates any partnership, joint venture, employment, agency or fiduciary relationship between you and the Operator.

32.5 Except for the persons identified in clauses 25.1(b) and 26.1, these Terms do not confer any benefit on any third party.

33.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. You and we submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Queensland and the courts entitled to hear appeals from them.