Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

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disentius
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Re: Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

Post by disentius »

concept compact setup (editor + editor extentions test setup)

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Re: Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

Post by mmmPI »

I think there need to be more turbines for that number of heat exchanger
With 108 Turbines you get 600 MW realiably, and if you don't consume 600MW, the steam buffer will increase inside each turbines to 200 instead of being capped which would allow spike consumption of around 630 MW.
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Re: Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

Post by disentius »

oos:) I forgot to put in the proper number of turbines. thanks, pi
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Re: Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

Post by mrvn »

It's generally a good idea to avoid loops in fluid systems as you get pressure waves and uneven distribution. Note: I'm talking about the turbines connecting to 2 pipes. You get steam flowing back and forth all throughout them.

You get steam from the the heatexchangers in 2 pipes. Why not keep that separate as 2 rows of heat turbines? For the output with only 6 heat exchangers put underground pipes between turbines so you have space for power poles.
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Re: Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

Post by vangrunz »

I've just remembered another question:
robot256 wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 12:54 amThe fluid level in a flowing pipe is a stable equilibrium that the player doesn't have to worry about.
I've noticed that a pipe as well as a tank displays only liquid level but not flow speed. If there's no flow speed how can a player know how it's working if the fluid level is irrelevant?

The only entities which show flow speed are steam engines/turbines & (offshore) pumps I know of. Perhaps I've overlooked something.

I'm experimenting with another storage tank patch and made this here:

2023-03-24_163337.jpg
2023-03-24_163337.jpg (804.79 KiB) Viewed 1392 times



Every tank in this setup has a liquid level of exactly 25k but the whole system shows 899k instead of 900k (the very right lamp should lit, not the green one). Is this a bug, or did I do something wrong?
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Re: Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

Post by robot256 »

vangrunz wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 3:35 pm
I've noticed that a pipe as well as a tank displays only liquid level but not flow speed. If there's no flow speed how can a player know how it's working if the fluid level is irrelevant?

The only entities which show flow speed are steam engines/turbines & (offshore) pumps I know of. Perhaps I've overlooked something.
There should be a bit of animation and sound when fluid is flowing. But other than that, vanilla doesn't give much indication. The comments you received before are all ways to infer whether flow is sufficient (yes/no answer) based on how buffer levels change over time. When designing optimal systems, it does take some offline math to get the ratios right.
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Re: Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

Post by Tertius »

vangrunz wrote: Fri Mar 24, 2023 3:35 pm I've noticed that a pipe as well as a tank displays only liquid level but not flow speed. If there's no flow speed how can a player know how it's working if the fluid level is irrelevant?
There are producers and there are consumers. I hover over every producer and every consumer to check if it is working at full throughput. If there is one not working at the expected throughput, I know I have to adjust something. A fill state of 100/200/400 indicates congestion (that is to be avoided), and the fluid icon flashing/going away indicates shortage (also to be avoided).

Sometimes, I add pumps at some strategic point just to see throughput. After I got an idea of the throughput, I remove them again. Often it is sufficient to see the throughput at the start of some production line. If it's lower than the sum of the expected maximum throughput of the connected consumers, there is some shortage. Keep an eye on the flashing fluid icons in ALT-mode. If icons are flashing, it can be a sign of some shortage, because pipes get completely empty. If they fill again before the consumer processes the next batch, it's fine, but if the consumer, for example some chemical plant, is stalling, you need to supply more.
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Re: Fluid system: only 1st Storage Tank is filled to 25k and only with a pump

Post by mrvn »

Press F4 and turn on show-fluid-box-fluid-info:
fluid-box-info.png
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Green is the fluid level and blue is the flow rate unless I'm mistaken.

Note: Only water flows into the storage tank, everything else is standing still because the output is full everywhere.


As for knowing when you have enough flow: The only way to check that is to see that no producer is blocked and and consumer runs dry. Use the Bottleneck mod to show indicators for how well stuff works. IN the above screenshot everything has a yellow LED with "||" pause symbol because the output is full. Except a few assembler in the top left that are still working.
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