thermal stress analysis

[solarmax]

Hi,
I want to evaluate the thermal stresses of a steel tube, which
has a varying heatflux over the circumference. The tube is very long, so I want to simulate only a section. The problem are the boundary conditions. When I use symmetrie at the edges the thermal expansion will cause constraints, which aren't realistic. The displacement in the longitudinal direction is free, but has to be equal at the edges. I don't know how to achieve this...

thanks for helping

 

[Drej]

If you want to model a plane of symmetry how else would you do it other than constraining the model? This is quite normal. If your model has 3 DOF, just constrain the one translational DOF for symmetry. If you have 6 DOF, you will need to constrain 1 translational + 2 rotational.

 

[solarmax]

With the coupling of nodes it works. (CP,1,UZ,ALL)
So there is no need for symmetry and the edges can displace in
z-direction.