Mr Ay,

Respectfully, I too disagree with COADE's position on +Y lift off.

The examples that you give above are very real situations that occur, but that's not a justification to treat the effects of +Y lift offs as secondary loads and secondary stresses. For me, thermal loads due to pipe expansion or contraction are secondary and dead weight loads are primary. When a pipe lifts off a support, the dead weight loads in the system are redistributed to other supports. The stresses resulting from the redistributed dead weight load are primary.

For me, the answer to the examples you cite is not to allow +Y lift off to be treated as a thermal condition, but rather to create additional files to define the separate restraint conditions for each situation as required. It's not the easy way but I believe it's the right way.

Best regards,