“I was amazed as to how easy it is to get a model started, refined and solved. Especially since RISA-3D is designed to do structural analysis on civil structures. The employer was very pleased with the thoroughness of the analysis and design provided by RISA. They were also very pleased with the cost savings in their material and shipping as a result of using RISA.”

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Location
Salem, Va.

Structural Engineer
Dewey Spangler, PE, Consultant
Professor-Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech University

About the Project:
RISA-3D was used to perform a stress analysis on a series of carbon steel plate for a fluid heat exchanger. The analysis was subjected to bending due to the pressurized state of the fluid inside of the heat exchanger. The FEA model required a large number of elements due to the complicated geometry of the plate.

Spangler inputted a course mesh into RISA-3D and allowed the program to generate a much finer mesh using its built-in mesh generator. Based on the results of the stress analysis, the plate thickness was reduced from 6 inches to 2.5 and 3.5 inches, respectively. The 6 inch values were based on hand calculations and empirical equations using rules dictated by ASME design manuals.