CAESAR II – Common questions from the industry

August 20, 2015 by George Montgomery Leave a Comment

ECE has been engaging the CAESAR II Analysis Community on the Workflows with CAESAR II over the past few years. In this blog post I would like to bring that information back to the industry, by detailing the most common issues that I have come across to date. To assist my answers in this post I have utilized multiple common resources available to all CAESAR II users, most notably the guidance of the technical advisors of CAESAR II by ICAS, to get a larger perspective on the issues surrounding these questions and how we can better implement upcoming changes to the software. The following are the top most common issues and responses to those issues:

Tempmat error, where does it come from? Typically this error comes from having a file generated by CAESAR II that does not get deleted, because a system process could not complete it’s operation. To solve this, remove all files in the directory you are working in, except for the _A and _J file, and retry your analysis.
What are your options when you have to work with input from a bad C2 conversion? “Bad” could mean bad wall thicknesses, missing nodes, extra nodes, node progression that is not continuous, blank nodes, or other errors. There are always options available but most of the time these problems are solved by going back to the file that generated the C2 output, and fixing it from the source.
How can you separate out a large, combined rigid element, so you can see flange leakage on a globally applied rigid that spans multiple valves? Use the break element function, and apply the flange leak check at the new node.
Is there any way to keep the model view set to a certain location when you restart a file? No, there is no option switch to allow this at the current time. Your view will default based on the “Default Projection Mode” setting located under “Graphics Settings”.
Is it typical to activate Bourdon effects for a job? No, it is not typical. These effects from pressure elongation can be added as a default operator but from my perspective, most users of CAESAR II are not typically activating this function.
When modeling a rigid element from an anchored location to a flanged connection for a API 610 check, it seems to make a difference if you use a different diameter for the rigid element? Yes, diameter of the rigid element effects the stiffness value associated with the rigid. Usually you keep the same diameter that you have assigned to the element preceding the rigid.
What are the major differences, and typical uses for the PEQ and NC methods for flange leak checking? Use whichever method the client prefers. The NC method is used when you are complying with ASME II nuclear code, and PEQ should be used otherwise.
Is there any method for having multiple ambient temperatures for a job? No, so what you can do instead is define a thermal expansion for those elements that have a different ambient temperature. You can do this by defining a value less than the alpha tolerance in the configuration settings.
Do you typically keep an anchor restraint at the location of a pump nozzle check? Yes, or a displacement.
When you perform an underground pipe analysis, the density of the fluid is removed. Should the engineer put the density back? No, the density is removed of the fluid (and the pipe) since these values are incorporated into the restraints that are generated by the underground pipe modeler.
When supplying forces on a support to structural for beam sizing, if the support isn’t aligned with X, Y, or Z, do you give the Global forces or the Local forces? Global forces would make more sense if both structural and stress are working off the same WCS.
How can you get output in a 132 character file, versus an 80 character output for export to PDMS? There used to be a 132 vs 80 character report output difference which was utilized in earlier versions of CAESAR. The 132 character reports now exist as the default “extended” type reports. The output format can be customized by the user with custom reports, but offical support to PDMS has been degredated.
How can you make a CADWorx visualization transparent? The option is available if you right click your model view and go to display options.
What is a common Mu (Friction) factor for a U-Bolt? For steel on steel the common friction factor is 0.300.
Is there a way to modify the caesar.cfg file in CADWorx to force C2OUT to apply a user defined stiffness value? There is a caesar.cfg file located C:\CADWorx 2015\Plant\System that assumes some data from generated C2 files, however the default caesar.cfg from your CAESAR installation which is located in C:\ProgramData\Intergraph CAS\CAESAR II\7.00\System will provide the default settings of the C2 file when it is opened by the CAESAR user.
What is the optimal specification setup for CADWorx to CAESAR II conversion? CAESARIIMaterial = 0, CAESARIITolerance=0.001, CAESARIIVersion = (Your CAESAR version), CAESARIIMemory = 1024.
What methods can I use to replicate a restraint to other nodes in the model? If you “break” an element, use the “get support from node” option, and type in the node that contains the support you want to copy over.

Thanks,

-George

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CAESAR II – Common questions from the industry

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