[ANSYS] Bellmouth boundary conditions

[j_b]

I'm using ANSYS Workbench 16.2 and trying to analyze the stress due to gravity, a thermal condition and a pressure. The geometry is essentially a pipe that flares out at one end and has a flange at the other end. I'm using cyclic symmetry. In order to constrain the bellmouth from axial motion, I've treated the downstream flange face as a frictionless support. I'm not sure the best way to prevent transverse motion. I had thought of treating the bolt holes as a fixed support, but that is not realistic, as the flange this piece is bolted to will also be growing radially due to thermal growth as well as the pressure.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[whitwas]

Since the displacements are constrained to be cyclically symmetric, there can't be any rigid body translational motion so no need to constrain it.

There can be rotation about the symmetry axis. For that, you can constrain a single node in the tangential direction. It doesn't matter which one. That's just the point that won't rotate while the rest of the structure deforms around it. It should show zero reaction forces to confirm it's not interfering with the deformation.