Stress Analysis of a Pipe Under Thermal Loads — Lesson 1

Pipes may transport hot fluids or gases, causing them to expand at higher temperatures. Engineers need to account for this thermal expansion and the consequent stresses that may occur when designing a transport system of pipes. In this example, we will calculate the amount of deformation a pipe undergoes when allowed to expand freely. We will pay close attention to the boundary conditions applied, to ensure that the pipe is not over-constrained and is, in fact, free to expand due to an increase in temperature.

Simulation Files

Download the zip file and extract the contents. Go through the Readme file. Follow along with the provided How To Video file. The student version of Ansys simulation software can be downloaded here.