At my company when we model a piping system, we add the structural support stiffness at restraints. Recently in a discussion on which methodology is correct was told that "Industry Practice" was to model all supports as rigid.

I understand that modeling all restraints as rigid is the more conservative approach, but I feel it takes the model a little further from reality. The major problem I have with this approach is that it can lead to overdesigned systems because we are playing it too safe. Finding the support stiffness and entering a conservative value into CII is quite simple so why not.

I would just like some feedback, to see what other opinion are out there…. I know sometimes we get trapped into the “our way is the correct way” mentality. Does anyone know of any good publications regarding different modeling approaches? Image if it is “Industry Practice” something has to be written about this ( I cannot find it).

Thanks