Maple,

To search for your answer go to CAESAR II Technical reference manual,chapter on Technical discussions and "Modelling Friction effects".You can also go through the papaer titled" Treatment of support friction in Pipe stress analysis " by L.C.Peng.You can download this paper from the site www.pipestress.com.

To give you a ready solution, I would suggest that either you remove coefficient of friction or reduce the friction stiffness. Reduction of friction stiffness results in a less rigid system providing more even load distribution.


Hope this answers your question.

A.Bhattacharya

Stress Analyst

Bechtel Corporation