We'd like to model our tube furnace in ABAQUS, in particular a
spectacular incident involving an unexpected temperature jump that
induced plastic deformation of a fused quartz tube. This will involve a
comparison of hand calculations of simplified models, ABAQUS results
for plastic and viscoelastic deformation, and the actual "experimental"
results. We hope to explore the mechanisms of time- and
temperature-dependent viscoelastic deformation in the tube under loads
on its ends as well as the issues related to representing deformation
and temperature variations in modeling software. With the actual
deformed quartz tube and recorded temperature data versus time, we can
check the accuracy of several complexities of representations, varying
from a simple cantilever beam under point and thermal loads to a more
detailed model and temperature profile in ABAQUS.