hello, I am new to the forum, Hi to all
For the last couple of months I have been struggeling with modeling and coupling of 1D elements with 3Delements of a tube plate, 1D elements are chosen because of obvious reasons, we would like to reduces the mesh.
Here is the problem I have some thousands of pipes which are partially represented by 3D model and the rest using 1D model(example: if the pipe 2mts long the .2mters are represented by 3D and the rest using pipe elements or 1D). Is it a novel thing to do if I use one 1D element (pipe or beam element) and and couple it with the entire 3D model (I am interested in modeling the thermal expansion of the pipes ). Since all the pipes would expand equally , is it not novel to represent all the pipes using one pipe element. Otherwise I will have to write a script for thousand of rigid region , which is exteremely onerous.
Kindly comment , I am willing to explain more if I am not clear with my problem.