Ball Joint Modeling

I'm developing a piping model of an existing 8" 450 psig steam system with five ball joints. My preference is to work with Caesar II. Algor Pipeplus is an alternative option.

Using Caesar II for the modeling looks rather cumbersome using the approach suggested by David Diehl of Coade. Algor's ball joint model was revised in March of this year, so has a short usage history.

The ball joint manufacturer's comments regarding Caesar range from "have had no complaints from customers using Caesar" to "[Caesar].produce[s] marginally accurate results".

A manufacturer suggested CAEPIPE. I see that the CAEPIPE input matches well the friction torque (ft-lbs) and rotational data usually provided by ball joint manufacturers, whereas for Caesar the input is (ft-lb/deg).

Comments from first-hand experience with modeling ball joints would be appreciated.

Ken A. Nisly-Nagele, P.E.

Project Engineer, Mechanical

Applied Engineering Services, Inc.

7999 Knue Road

Indianapolis, IN 46250

317-585-8920

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Received on Wed Nov 02 14:04:00 2005