TRIFLEX®
Version 3.2.0 Enhancements & Modifications
May 2, 2008
Enhancements
1. One Dimensional Release Elements and Expansion Joints – Adding to the versatility of
TRIFLEX, this release adds one dimensional release elements and expansion joints that
may be specified to be fixed with regard to displacement in either the positive or negative
Cartesian or skew coordinates and free in the opposite direction. This allows the simulation
of pipe resting on structural members with the ability to lift off in one direction but restrained
should it try to displace in the opposite direction.
2. Piping System Limits Extended – This release of TRIFLEX eliminates the maximum piping
size and complexity limits previously imposed by the program. The maximum limitation,
rather than being a fixed number of components or number of loops, now depends on the
amount of computer memory available to perform the calculation. Test cases have been run on
systems having more than 4000 total components and more than 60000 total data points,
including intermediate nodes with multiple restraints. As a consequence of this change, the 4
digit limit on node numbers has been expanded to 6 digits and more space has been allocated in
the lower toolbar for display of the expanded node number size. It should be cautioned that the
relaxation of system size comes at the expense of calculation as well as spread sheet and
graphical display times. While piping systems designed under the old limitations will work
faster than before, users should be prepared for possibly long execution times for extremely
large systems. There are some short cuts such as the Display Freeze switch and Calculation
Log condensation that may be useful when dealing with such systems. In the meantime, the
development staff of PipingSolutions is continually working on improving the efficiency and
optimizing the performance of the program and such enhancements can be expected in future
releases.
3. Save Without Output – The increasing size of piping systems along with the number of
possible load cases can, in some instances, extend the data file associated with TRIFLEX
to several hundred megabytes in size. Even with compression, trying to email or otherwise
transmit such a file may not be practical. Therefore a new option was added to the file save
menu which allows the saving of the system input without output. When transmitted, the
intended recipient of the file would then do a basic calculation with TRIFLEX in order to
obtain the results.
4. B31.5 Impact Testing – Provisions have been made in the Piping Code Compliance report for
B31.5 to evaluate, based on section 523.2.2 of the code whether ferrous materials used at low
temperatures need to be subject to impact testing before use.
Modifications
1. Austenitic Stainless Steel Thermal Expansion – A problem was located and rectified in the
B31.3 material data base for Austenitic Stainless Steels at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit wherein the
thermal expansion was listed incorrectly. Since interpolation is used to evaluate the thermal
expansion at intermediate temperatures, the use of these materials at any temperature between
1100 F and 1300 F would have given an erroneous result.
2. Local Forces and Moments for Elbows – The calculation and display of local forces and
moments for Elbows was in error in version 3.1.1 of TRIFLEX such that the direction of an
elbow was determined as the direction of the leg. This version modifies this such that the
beginning, mid, and end directions of an elbow are separately calculated and local forces and
moments are given in terms of these directional vectors.
3. B31.3 Serialization – While the previous version of TRIFLEX allowed for the setting and
incorporation of the Weld Joint Reduction Factor and the user’s choice of whether or not Case
178 calculations were done in the code compliance determination, these settings were not
properly saved with the data file. This release corrects this error.
4. Octahedral Stress Report– An error was found and corrected in the Octahedral Stress
Report in View Results for combined load cases wherein, under some circumstances, the
maximum value, as required, was not being shown.
5. System Displacement with Show Selected Components Only– When the Show Selected
Components Only switch was activated, and the user elected to see the system displacement
modified such that if the switch is active, only the selected components are shown in the
displacement diagram as well as the system rendering.
6. Corrosion Allowance Checking– In the case where non-English input units were used with
ANSI pipe sizes in inches, an error occurred due to unit conversion when checking the relative
magnitudes of corrosion allowance and pipe wall thickness. This problem has been eliminated.
7. Report Preview and Report Print – The use of a third party library for previewing and printing
reports has been curtailed. This library had a number of memory leakage problems which
could result in unexpected program crashes. While we are working on a replacement module
for printing entire reports, we encourage users to try the “Export to EXCEL” feature in order to
format and display piping system reports.
8. Soil Properties Dialog – The soil properties dialog for underground piping has been modified
to correct an error in units for vertical load when using the IU1 unit system and to properly
handle the ASME calculation of vertical load and soil stiffness when non-English units are used
with ANSI pipe sizes where diameter is given in inches.
9. Pipe Material Selection Method – Several problems associated with the material selection
method have been cured including the accurate representation and calculation of properties
when copying from one document to another and the ability to clear the material cache and
maintain the proper material selections.
10. Euro Code Material Properties – When a Euro material in which Expansion Coefficient and
Modulus of Elasticity is given in the code as a quadratic function of temperature was used in
TRIFLEX, these properties were not properly serialized and thus lost when a saved data file
was retrieved. This problem has been corrected.
11. Material Temperature Limits in Copy - Paste Operations Material Temperature and maximum
temperatures for a materials could at times be lost when a portion of a piping system was
copied then pasted into a new document. While the situation could have been rectified by
resetting the material cache, the initial occurrence of the problem could be irritating. Now the
material cache reset is done automatically, so that materials in the new paste-to system will re-
acquire the full set of properties from the data base, with the temperature limits being
recalculated based on these properties.
12. Fiber Reinforced Materials Not Saved Correctly – Piping systems containing Fiber Reinforced
materials would not be saved properly, corrupting the data file. The data file then could not be
read in any longer. This problem has been resolved.
