Dear Sir,

1) Kindly explain any one what is Virtual anchor length ?

2) How to correlate this VAL with the actual piping model / iso. Why virtual anchor length, say 94522 mm, is appearing in the Caesar result against all the elements. What does this mean or signifies.

3)Also I want to understand that if such virtual anchors (where axial displacements becomes zero)are many for very long buried gas pipeline model like 200-300 km or even more, then whether we need to consider any thrust block for pipe stability at such virtual anchors (null points)for high seismic zones? what is the recommendation from a stress engineer expected other than stress qualification of the such long buried pipeline.

Kindly explain

Warm Regards
Sharun Suresh