piping stress analysis by Inventor

[Anonymous]

As you know, there are some specific software to do the piping stress analysis (e.g. Caesar II).

I was just wondering if it is possible to do piping stress analysis in Inventor as well. The reason behind this is that if I can do the stress analysis in Inventor, I can check differenet pipe routing options and choose the best one.

Thank you in advance.

[dgorsman · Accepted solution]

The dedicated programs check for compliance to specific regulatory codes, not just stress levels.  The codes make a number of assumptions, conditions, and have certain interpretations which are all implemented in those programs but not generic stress analysis.  Plus, they can import (and sometimes export) PCF and other formats for communicating with piping software.

FYI, the latest versions of CAESAR II have some built-in loop generators to make it easier to work through those alternatives.

[blair · Accepted solution]

The size of mesh to do pipe FEA would bring any decent system to it's knees. The wall thickness to length ratio would generate a large mesh file.