Dear all,

I need some advice on the following:

Can Caesar II be used for analysis of furnace/heater tubes - at the radiant section and at the convection section?

Would appreciate if I could get an in sight on this subject and maybe examples of models that you can share.

Many thanks in advance.

LiAnne,

I have done some calculations with the combination of Caesar II, a beam element FEA program and spreadsheet solutions for stresses.
Sometimes Caesar II can be used alone. However, the complication of analysis and the tools available are important for the selection by the analyst.

I have a couple samples, however, I am not allowad to distribute them due to the aggreement I had with the company I worked for.

You can make two models for each side walls, if they are not identical by geometry and loads. One wall model might be for the centre tube(s) of wall another at/around corner of furnace. In case there is no spring hanger in the model I would suggest to try the calculation by a beam element FEA analysis and solve the outcome by spreadsheets. It is much easier.

In the convection section, if you have two drums, and one carries the other one by tension/compression of convection tubes, I suggest to use similar analyses by a beam element FEA program. Be careful to watch the stiffness of convection bank tubes due to different stiffnesses of drums. I can not go further because you did not present sufficient information/drawings supporting your request.

Hope it helps.

Ibrahim Demir

Dear Ibrahim,

Thanks very much for your reply. I understand that without more information, it is very limited to what kind of advice you are able to offer.

At the moment, I am not working on any particular project or design of furnace. However I came across a question from an associate regarding this subject.

And for the reason that I wasn't sure if running analysis using Caesar II would be a good idea to model tubes in furnaces. Or this could be done more effectively with another progam (such as FEA)?

It would be great if experienced engineers could share their views regarding this subject.

Ibrahim, once again many thanks. Appreciate your advice.