Dear all,

I need your help to solve the following issue:
I've to analyze a very long line carrying oil, located on a jetty.
The adding loops isn't feasible. To absorb the thermal growing, expansion joints with balanced pressure has been adopted. In this way the line is much more stable than a line which has classic axial joints mounted on it.
The pressure thrust should be completly absorbed by the tie rods, leaving the axial stop of the line unloaded.
On axial stop, only the load produced by the friction should appear.
By the output of the model you can find attached, results aren't reasonable. For instance, node 2110, which is an axial stop, is subjected to an high value (40KN more or less) in SUS (W+P) condition. From my point of view, I expect a value near zero.
I did many analyses changing axial and transversal K of the bellow, without noting big differences; only changing the ID of the bellows, values change. I don't understand the cause, because the tie rod should keep the load.
For sure, the ej model isn't completly right, but I'm not able to find the mistake.
Can anyone take a look to the model and give the solution.

Thanks in advance.

P.S: from your point of view, adding the bourdon effect to the analisys, can it create a big impact on the values?


Attachments
EJ.zip (368 downloads)