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CSiPlant pipe supports offer several unique capabilities to be aware of:
- CSiPlant pipe supports by default automatically connect to the outside diameter (OD) of the pipe with internal rigid links automatically generated from pipe centerline to the OD in each acting direction of the support.
- Anchors, guides, line stops, and distributed supports automatically follow the local axis of piping and frames. Local support reactions can be graphically viewed and reported for supports on skewed pipelines that don’t align with global axes.
- Guides, vertical stops, line stops, and distributed supports enable users to define different gaps, different friction coefficients, and different linear or multi-linear spring properties in each acting direction of the support. For example, a guide support could be defined to have a 2" gap to the right (local 3 direction) with friction coefficient of .3, with 0 gap to the left with a multi-linear breakaway spring.
- Once a pipe support has been defined, it can be reused without having to reenter support data, thereby saving time, and improving consistency by enabling users to create their own customized library of pipe supports. For example, users could define a guide with lateral support only, and another guide support with both lateral and downward support for horizontal piping.
- Because CSiPlant works from a pipe support property library which can be user defined, modifications to multiple pipe supports can be done with a single edit. For example, if a change to 80 guides throughout the piping model needs to be made, a change to gaps, friction or support stiffness for example, this modification could be made to all 80 supports with the change of a single pipe support property.
- Damper/Snubber support not only applies stiffness (K), it can also apply a damping constant for energy dissipation (C) with nonlinear velocity exponent option as specified by some damper vendors. If a damper works with a column of fluid, there must be an energy dissipation aspect to its behavior in addition to stiffness. The damping properties of nonlinear viscous dampers are based on the Maxwell model of viscoelasticity (Malvern, 1969), and may be specified for each deformational degree-of-freedom (DOF).
- All pipe supports can be applied as either a 1-point support connected to ground (default), or as a 2-point support connected to another pipe or frame element.
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