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mds@edstechn
Workshop 16

Thermal-Stress Analysis of Intersecting Pipes

Introduction
This workshop involves the thermal-stress analysis of a cylindrical pipe intersection. The
pipes are surrounded by a fluid and are filled with another fluid. The interaction between
the pipes and the surrounding fluids are modeled using surface convection. The internal
pressure due to the inner fluid is modeled with a pressure load. Both the thermal and
mechanical responses are sought. The mechanical behavior of the part is expected to
influence the thermal response weakly. Thus, a sequential thermal stress analysis is
performed. The thermal analysis model will be developed first and will form the basis of
the structural analysis model. The structural analysis consists of two steps. Optionally,
the thermal-stress analysis will also be performed with Abaqus/Explicit.
The model is based on the intersecting pipe model created earlier. As shown in Figure
W16–1, only a quarter of the pipe-to-pipe intersection is modeled to take advantage of
symmetry.

Figure W16–1 Pipe intersection model.

To begin this workshop, open the database containing the pipe intersection model created
earlier.

Note: The replay file ../heatTransfer/ws_intro_pipe_heat_mesh.py can be

used to generate the prerequisite model definitions for this workshop. In the event you
were unable to complete the previous workshop successfully, accidentally deleted your
model database file, etc., do the following: copy the file into a local directory, start
Abaqus/CAE, and run the script by selecting File→Run Script from the main menu bar.
Then proceed with the rest of the workshop.

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W16.2

Properties and model assembly

The units used in this model are SI (kg, m, s, N, ºC). The pipes are made of a typical
commercial purity aluminum alloy. The material is assumed to harden isotropically. The
dependence of the flow stress on the temperature is included.
1. In the Model Tree, double-click Materials to create a new material. Name the
material aluminum, and specify the following Thermal properties:
· Temperature-dependent conductivity:
204 W/mºC at 0ºC
225 W/mºC at 300ºC
· Specific heat = 880 J/kgºC
· Inelastic heat fraction = 0.0 (needed for the Abaqus/Explicit analysis
to prevent mechanical→thermal coupling)
2. Add the following General property:
· Density = 2700 kg/m3
3. Add the following Mechanical properties. (These properties will be used in the
subsequent stress analysis.)
· Modulus of elasticity = 6.9E10 Pa
· Poisson's ratio = 0.33
· Coefficient of thermal expansion = 8.42E-5 / ºC
· Temperature-dependent plasticity:
Read the data from an ASCII text file. Toggle on Use temperature-
dependent data, as shown in Figure W16–2, and right-click in the data field
indicated in the figure. From the list of available options, select Read from
File. Read the data from the file plasticProps.inp.

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W16.3

Toggle this on

Right-click here

Figure W16–2 Reading plastic material properties from a file.

4. Create a homogeneous solid section named aluminumSection, and assign it to

the part.
5. Create an instance of the part pipe-int in the assembly.

Analysis procedure and output

To simulate the thermal response of the part, a single heat transfer step will be used.
1. In the Model Tree, double-click Steps to create an analysis step.
2. In the Create Step dialog box, select Heat transfer as the general procedure type
and create a transient heat transfer analysis step using the following parameters:
· Description: Thermal analysis
· Total time period = 200 sec
· Maximum number of increments allowed = 100
· Initial increment size = 1 sec
· End the step when the temperature change rate is less than 0.5 ºC
· Maximum allowable temperature change per increment = 10 ºC
3. Accept all default ODB output requests.

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W16.4

Surface film condition

The conditions to model the surface convection will now be applied.
1. In the Model Tree, double-click Interactions to create a new interaction.
2. In the Create Interaction dialog box, select Surface film condition as the
interaction type and click Continue. Specify a film condition for the outer surface
of the pipe shown in Figure W16–3. Use a film coefficient of 50 W/m2·sºC and
sink temperature of 20ºC.

Figure W16–3 Surface for outer film condition.

The fluid temperature on the inner surface is time-dependent. Thus, an amplitude

curve is required to prescribe the sink temperature history.
3. In the Model Tree, double-click Amplitudes.
4. Accept the default Tabular type, and click Continue.
5. Enter the following data pairs (0, 20), (10, 400), and (200, 400) in the table.
The data represent the sink temperature as a function of time.
6. Click OK.
7. Create a film condition for the interior surface of the pipe shown in
Figure W16–4.
· Specify a film coefficient of 1200 W/m2·s·ºC.
· Enter a value of 1ºC for the sink temperature, and use amplitude curve Amp-1
created earlier for the sink amplitude. The magnitude of the sink temperature
will be the product of the specified value and the amplitude.

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W16.5

Figure W16–4 Surface for inner film condition.

Initial conditions
The pipe is initially at room temperature (20ºC).
1. In the Model Tree, double-click Predefined Fields.
2. In the Create Predefined Field dialog box, set the step to Initial, the category to
Other, and the type to Temperature.
3. Click Continue.
4. Select the complete model by dragging the mouse across the viewport with the
mouse button held down.
5. Click Done in the prompt area.
6. In the Edit Predefined Field dialog box, enter a value of 20ºC for the initial
temperature Magnitude.

Thermal analysis
1. In the Model Tree, double-click Jobs to create a job named pipe-thermal. The
results from this analysis will be used to drive the subsequent stress analysis;
double precision output is desirable in this case. Thus, set the nodal output
precision to Full.
2. Save the model database.
3. Submit the job for analysis.

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W16.6

Postprocessing
1. Once the analysis completes successfully, click mouse button 3 on the job pipe-
thermal in the Model Tree and select Results from the menu that appears.
2. Plot the contours of nodal temperature by selecting the variable NT11 from the
Field Output dialog box (or the Field Output toolbar).
The contour plot is shown in Figure W16–5 (your results may vary slightly).

Figure W16–5 Temperature distribution in the pipes.

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W16.7

Stress analysis
The stress analysis consists of two steps. In the first step, only a pressure load is applied.
In the second step, the thermal load is added.
The thermal analysis model and properties will form the basis of the stress analysis
model. You will copy the model and modify the new model as described below.
1. In the Model Tree, click mouse button 3 on the model thermal and select Copy
Model from the menu that appears. In the Copy Model dialog box, name the new
model stress. Click OK.
2. In the Model Tree, collapse the container for the model thermal.
Tip: An alternative way to organize your Model Tree is to click mouse button 3
on the stress model and select Set As Root from the menu that appears.
Abaqus/CAE moves the container to the pull-down menu above the Model Tree
and displays everything under the selected container in the Model Tree. The Set
Root to Model Database icon ( ) returns the Model Tree to the default view.
3. In the model stress, replace the Heat Transfer step with a Static, General step
(Step→Replace). Use a time period of 10 and an initial time increment size of 1.
4. Create an additional static step. Set the step time period to 200 and the initial time
increment to 0.2.
5. In Step-1, apply a pressure load with magnitude 3.50E6 Pa to the internal
surfaces of the pipe.
Tip: Use the face angle selection technique to facilitate your selection.
6. In the Initial step, define symmetry boundary conditions to each symmetry plane
and a pinned condition to the top face as shown in Figure W16–6,
Figure W16–7, and Figure W16–8.
Tip: Set the selection filter type to Faces to facilitate the selections.

Figure W16–6 XSYMM faces.

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W16.8

Boundary conditions on these faces

represent attachments to a larger
structure.

Figure W16–7 ZSYMM faces.

Figure W16–8 PINNED face.

7. A predefined temperature field is specified using the results obtained in the heat
transfer analysis.
a. Open the Predefined Field Manager.
b. Select the cell labeled Created under the column labeled Initial and click
Edit.
c. In the predefined field editor:
· Select From results or output database file as the distribution.
· Enter the file name pipe-thermal.odb.
· Specify a value of 1 for the step and 0 for the increment.

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W16.9

With these settings, the initial temperature values from the heat transfer
analysis are read. You will now modify this field definition in the second
step to read the results from the transient thermal analysis step.
d. Select the cell labeled Propagated under the column labeled Step-2 and
click Edit.
e. Specify the values shown in Figure W16–9.

Figure W16–9 Reading temperatures from the .odb file.

8. Change the element type assigned to the part regions to C3D4 and C3D8R:
a. In the Model Tree branch for the model stress, expand the pipe_int item
underneath the Parts container and double-click Mesh in the list that
appears.
b. From the main menu bar, select Mesh→Element Type and then select the
whole model as the region to be assigned an element type.
c. In the Element Type dialog box, select 3D Stress as the element family.
In the Hex tabbed page, toggle on Reduced integration. Click OK.
9. Create a job named pipe-stress for the model stress, and run the analysis job.
10. Save the model database.
11. Once the job completes, enter the Visualization module and plot the contours of
stress and displacement. The displacement magnitude contour plot at the end of
the first analysis step is shown in Figure W16–10 (your results may vary slightly).
In this figure the displacement magnification has been set to 800.

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W16.10

Figure W16–10 Displacement magnitude plot at end of pressure step

(deformation scale factor=800).

12. The Mises stress contour plot at the end of the second analysis step is shown in
Figure W16–11 (your results may vary slightly). In this figure the displacement
magnification has been set to 1 and a non-default legend has been used.

Figure W16–11 Mises stress distribution at the end of the analysis

(deformation scale factor=1).

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W16.11

Coupled thermal-stress analysis with Abaqus/Explicit (Optional)

If time permits, perform the thermal-stress analysis using the explicit dynamics solver.
Even though a fully coupled procedure is used, the thermal response has been uncoupled
from the mechanical response since the inelastic heat fraction has been set to zero. Thus,
in effect, a sequential analysis is performed. The steps required to complete this analysis
are described next.
1. Copy the model named stress to a new model named stress-explicit.
2. Delete Step-2 (you cannot replace both steps simultaneously).
3. Replace Step-1 with a Dynamic, Temp-disp, Explicit step; use a time period of
10 seconds for this step.
4. Define a second Dynamic, Temp-disp, Explicit step; use a time period of
200 seconds for this step.
5. For each step, apply Semi-automatic mass scaling to the whole model using a
scale factor of 1.0e8.
6. Resume the surface film conditions in Step-2:
· In the Model Tree, expand the Interactions container. Select both
interactions and click mouse button 3. From the menu that appears,
select Resume.
· Open the Interactions Manager. Select each Created field and click
Move Right.
7. Recall that in dynamic analysis procedures, loads are applied instantaneously.
However, in this problem, a quasi-static response is sought. In order to promote a
quasi-static response, loads must be applied gradually. For this purpose create a
Smooth step amplitude curve. Name the curve Amp-2; use the points (0, 0),
(10, 1) to define the curve.
8. Edit the pressure load in Step-1. Use the amplitude Amp-2 for the load
application.
9. Edit the initial temperature field to use Direct specification as the distribution.
Enter a value of 20ºC for the initial temperature and click to select the entire
part instance.
10. Change the element library to Explicit and the element family to Coupled
Temperature-Displacement. Select Reduced integration.
The resulting hexahedral and tetrahedral element types should be C3D8RT and
C3D4T, respectively.
11. Create a job named pipe-stress-explicit and submit it for analysis.

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W16.12

Postprocessing (continued)
1. Plot the contours for Mises stress and PEEQ on the deformed shape for both the
implicit and explicit analyses.
The PEEQ contours for both analyses are shown in Figure W16–12 (your results
may vary slightly, say within 5%). The results predicted by Abaqus/Standard and
Abaqus/Explicit are in excellent agreement.

Figure W16–12 PEEQ contours at the end of the analysis

(implicit, left; explicit, right).

2. Adjust the feature angle criterion (View→ODB Display Options; drag the feature
angle slider to 30 and click OK).
This will facilitate the path selection that follows.
3. In the Results Tree, double-click Paths.
4. In the Create Path dialog box, choose Edge list as the type and click Continue.
5. In the Edit Edge List Path dialog box, click Add After.
6. In the prompt area choose by feature edge as the selection method and select the
edge shown in Figure W16–13.
7. If necessary, click Flip in the prompt area so that the start point of the path is at
intersection of the symmetry planes.
The entire edge is then selected automatically, as shown in Figure W16–13.

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W16.13

Select this edge first

Figure W16–13 Node path.

8. In the Results Tree, double-click XYData.

9. Select Path from the Create XY Data dialog box, and click Continue.
10. Examine the various options in the XY Data from Path dialog box.
11. Click Plot to display the variation of PEEQ along the path, as shown in Figure
W16–14.

Figure W16–14 Path plot of PEEQ (explicit analysis).

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W16.14

Note: A script that creates the complete model described in these

instructions is available for your convenience. Run this script if you
encounter difficulties following the instructions outlined here or if you wish
to check your work. The script is named
ws_intro_pipe_heat.py
and is available using the Abaqus fetch utility.

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