Typically, we model entire lengths of pipe as one temperature, making the assumption that at steady state, the entire pipe achieves a single temperature, or simply to be conservative, we model it at maximum temperature.
Question 1) Does anyone know if any the codes specifically prohibit analyzing pipe a multiple simultaneous temperatures along the length of a pipe, i.e. if one part of the pipe sees the extreme temperature case, do you have to analyze the whole thing at the extreme temperature?
Question 2) As far as I know, CAESAR II really only allows you to change temperatures at nodes, and in order to model a temperature gradient, you have to split up a length of pipe into a series of nodes and discretize the temperature at each node. While splitting up a section of pipe into a hundred nodes isn't the problem, I don't relish manually entering the temperature points manually. Is there any other way to do this?
And presuming the answer to both questions is "No," I would like to request this feature in CAESAR II.
Suggestions: Leave it to the user to determine by which method the software interpolates a section of pipe. Require the user to input two or more temperature points, and require the user to tell CAESAR II how to interpolate between those individual points (e.g. linearly, polynomially, exponentially, step function - although, technically we can already [only] do step function - I think).
Thanks for reading.