How to Import/Export Gas Qualities

A template named "GasQualityImport", either in Microsoft Excel^© format or in text format, is available in the directory .\Documents\encoord\SAInt-v3\DataImport\Quality. The template has three sheets or sections: GQUAL, GCUS, and GCMP. We will show how to use the Microsoft Excel^© template, but the same logic applies to any other supported format.

The GQUAL sheet collects the main properties of the new gas mixtures. The user must fill in for each new gas quality: the name of the gas mixture, its relative density (RHOr), the gross (GCV) and the net calorific value (NCV), the critical pressure (PC), and the critical temperature (TC). The first row must report the property’s short name, and, in square brackets, the units of measure used. As an example with SI units, we could use: Name, RHOr [-], GCV [MJ/sm3], NCV [MJ/sm3], PC [bar], and TC [C]. The order is irrelevant as long as the correct short name is used. Pressure-related units should be defined using absolute pressure. SAInt will perform all necessary unit conversions to match the ones defined in the active project. Of all these properties, Name is mandatory.

The GCUS sheet defines the composition of each gas quality in terms of the percentage of the molar mass of each component (Figure 1). In column A of the sheet, each new gas stream must start with the reserved keyword "[QUAL]", followed by the short name of the components making up the stream. In column B, the name of the gas stream must be reported next "[QUAL]" cell, followed by the numeric value of the percentage in molar mass of each component. Figures are in the range of 0.0-100.0 % and must add up to 100 %. Figure 1 shows an example with three gas streams and different gas components from the built-in SAInt library.

The optional sheet GCMP is necessary in case the user needs to add new gas components to a gas stream created during the import procedure and not available from the built-in library of SAInt. Data are organized in a table similar to GQUAL. Row number one has columns' names: Name, RHOr [-], GCV [MJ/sm3], NCV [MJ/sm3], ShortName, PC [bar], and TC [C]. The other rows collect the data indicated by the columns. The difference with the GQUAL sheet is the field "ShortName" indicating the short form of the name of the component to be used in the GCMP sheet.

Once a network is available in your project, select Model Explorer  Networks  Gas Network  Qualities and choose Import Gas Quality(ies) from the context menu (Figure 2). Select the file containing the data for the new gas quality streams and specify the import format (i.e., *.xlsx, *.xls, *.csv or *.txt).

When successfully imported, the new gas qualities are reported in grey in the model explorer under qualities, as they are not yet assigned to any external (Figure 2). Otherwise, the user is informed of errors. If gas components are also imported, they will be under components.

To export a single gas quality stream, just select it and right-click. In the context menu choose Export Gas Quality(ies) (Figure 3), and specify the directory where to save the data (i.e., composition and properties) and the format type. SAInt informs the user of the outcome of the export operation.

The same steps are valid if more than one gas quality item is selected. If all qualities are to be exported, it is quicker to use Qualities  Export All Gas Qualities from the context menu (see Figure 3).